[governance] .WINE .VIN - who's business is it ?

[Mawaki Chango]

 Another remark about that quote from MM is that I'm afraid things are more
complicated than the simplistic divide it seems to suggest between the DNS
as global resource and local rules. The trouble is, and perhaps has always
been, that names are not numbers.

But first, there is something called global trade, of which USG is a world
champion -- and understandably so. Thanks to global trade, many products
such as wines are not just local consumption goods. Many such goods are
demanded around the world, based on their reputation and some other
factors. So this is not just a matter of local rules. Saying that does not
mean I'm advocating for sweeping rules universally protecting one country's
or one company's trademarks as global fortresses. There are still other
rules to be considered, among possible others, off-line rules or principles
of trademark law, etc. A wine that is produced in Western Cape which is
globally exported with a well established reputation in connection with its
geographical provenance is not only subject to Western Cape or South
African rules. As a matter of fact, there are many local fine liquors that
do not make it to the export list due to a whole stack of international
rules and requirements to be met for them to be exported. So those that
make it to the export list are subject to rules beyond local ones.

Secondly, as I was saying, names are not numbers. Once we're talking about
names, we're sooner or later confronted with things/ strings of characters
which (literally) mean a lot to some people, not just as local folklore but
also as a global asset. In a sense, at some point TLDs become something of
a content. I know we often say ICANN shouldn't be regulating content, but
the fact is that because they are names, TLDs may more often than not carry
with them the same kind of challenges that relate to contents. Furthermore,
once you're talking about names, then you might quickly be talking about
identities (as far as human beings are concerned) and the boundaries of
those identities may possibly not coincide with local or national
boundaries.

As long as there is no .WINE or .VIN, etc. TLD, people may register
whatever they want which is available at second level of the DNS (gTLDs and
ccTLDs) and countries may content themselves with regulating domain name
sale/registration within their borders. Once your considering authorizing
those TLDs, then you're clearly inviting the wine industry (in this
example), especially those that export their products _globally_ to seek
ways in which nobody else is going to usurp, say, their wine brands, their
identities within the wine industry, which happen to be attached to
geographical indications, under the _global_ resource and medium that would
be the .WINE TLD. Would anyone seriously expect otherwise? (And let me
quickly add that, as I see it, only within the boundaries of such TLD or
any TLD that unambiguously refers to their industry, they may have claims
to GIs that define their brand or identity in that industry.)

As I said, I'm not a trademark militant, not even an advocate, to be clear.
And I don't think a TLD designating an industry has to be ran necessarily
by an entity whose business is in that industry. But industry players are
entitled to ask that ground rules be established under that specific
industry TLD, which do not mess up with their globally relevant business or
products.

In conclusion, names are not numbers. Internet is not for machines but for
us the people who attach meaning to signs and names. Names (such as in the
DNS) may equate to content, based on what they mean to people and they may
encapsulate whole identities. So rules that are going to be made by ICANN
about those names (including using them as a TLD, to begin with) are
sometimes going to be as challenging as regulating contents, whether we
like it or not. Some of these identities may have, even in the geo-physical
space, a global scope or at least a scope larger than the local and
national scope, in large part thanks to global trade. Therefore, it's clear
that issues and questions will arise which, to be resolved, will need other
rules or agreements beyond national jurisdiction rules. To my
understanding, negotiating some of these new arrangements for the space
that the .WINE TLD would open up is what the European Commission is engaged
in with ICANN (based on what I have read here.)

Mawaki


On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 3:26 PM, Jefsey <jefsey at jefsey.com> wrote:

>  At 21:57 28/05/2014, Milton L Mueller wrote:
>
> The EC's idea that it can impose its parochial GI regulations on a global
> resource is misguided, and an attempt to assert extraterritorial
> jurisdiction. If they want to enforce their _*local*_ rules, let them
> regulate sale or consumption of the TLD registrations _*within their own
> territory*_ nothing stops them from doing that, they already have that
> authority.
>
>
> Milton,
>
> I feel that the time is now over for such debates about EC, or anyone
> else, copying the US in wanting to impose local global regulations. The US
> executive has removed itself from the loop and left the Internet to its
> reality of an aggregation of national, sales, regional, trade, local,
> private VGNs under the legal jurisdiction of the contracting parties,
> stakehodlers and users.
>
> The business, legal, structural, technical, etc. hysteresis is going to
> slowly fade away, most probably with some picks of resurgence: RFC 6852 has
> definitly acknowledged the nature of the modern Internet and paradigm: "We
> embrace a modern paradigm for standards where the economics of global
> markets, fueled by technological advancements, drive global deployment of
> standards regardless of their formal status". These standards without
> formal status (i.e. by local legal practices) "contribute to the creation
> of global communities, benefiting humanity". Prior to being politcal, or
> architectural, the fragmentation of the internet comes by its architectural
> use influenced by local laws and practices. Because internauts do not
> necessarily identify themselves as WASPs.
>
> You and I share the same catenet, use the same internet, but do not
> intersect much our "loglo.nets" (local virtual global networks).
>
> jfc
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