<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Alejandro wrote:<BR>
>> the ICANN mgmt has still not invited DNSO to be<BR>
>> represented on the committee discussing the future of<BR>
>> country name exclusions. Yet GAC and WIPO and<BR>
>> Afilias are.<BR>
<BR>
>Will act on this point.<BR>
<BR>
Alejandro: If you could act on the point above, it would be wonderful. I am very concerned about the impact of country name exclusions on noncommercial speech. There are many reasons, but here are three: <BR>
-- country names can have legitimate noncommercial meanings (e.g., Turkey);<BR>
-- countries in regular language use have no noncommercial or commercial control over their names, and it is a common noncommercial and commercial device to use a country name within a name, e.g., South African Imports, or Egypt Bookstore, or even France as the title of a book; <BR>
-- and it is a slippery slope: once we formally exclude names that have different meanings and values in different contexts, it makes it easier for ICANN to insert itself and the DNS database and its exclusions into other battles (such as regional identifiers like the French "Burgundy"). <BR>
<BR>
Getting country names excluded from the domain name database is "on the agenda" of WIPO, and as inarticulately as we speak, we in the NCC do have a lot of concerns to voice on the country name and exclusions issue.
Our concerns badly need to be included -- not just as comments from the outside -- but as considerations by and among the committee members.<BR>
<BR>
Hope all is well. Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.<BR>
- kathy <BR>
<BR>
Kathryn Kleiman<BR>
ACM-IGP<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"><BR>
<BR>
</BLOCKQUOTE><BR>
<BR>
</FONT></HTML>