Kathy,<div><br></div><div>I am sympathetic to your position. My concern is that any change now to the program will embroil ICANN in mass litigation that will paralyze the organization for a considerable period going forward. We briefly spoke in Los Angeles about some recent legal hires by Amazon: some pretty impressive hires. Can you convince me that my concerns are invalid? Might not a better approach at this point be to pressure the applicants themselves to open up the generic domains,  to make it socially unacceptable for large companies to operate closed Tlds?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Ed</div><div><br></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:26 PM, Kathy Kleiman <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kathy@kathykleiman.com" target="_blank">kathy@kathykleiman.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
  
    
  
  <div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
    <div>Quote from Jeff Neuman (VP Neustar) in
      Amsterdam last week:<br>
      
      <i><b>Nearly all of those applying for Closed gTLDs would fail to
          qualify based on his reading of the Code of Conduct. </b></i><i><b><br>
        </b></i><br>
      Article show concern around the world for TLDs which are generic
      strings/words of an entire industry or business (DOCS, BOOK,
      SEARCH, ANTIVIRUS, WATCHES) being dominated and controlled by a
      single industry/business (and only one of many competitors). 
      that's being a registry to monoplize a word, not to offer registry
      services.<br>
      <br>
      
      -    The Hindu:  Beauty lies in the ‘domain’ of the highest bidder
      (Op-ed piece by Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director, IT for
      Change, in special consultative status with the United Nations
      Economic and Social Council (IGF attendee)), 12/24/2012,
      <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/beauty-lies-in-the-domain-of-the-highest-bidder/article3929612.ece" target="_blank">http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/beauty-lies-in-the-domain-of-the-highest-bidder/article3929612.ece</a> 
      <br>
      <br>
      -    Forbes: The Battle For The Cloud: Amazon Proposes 'Closed'
      Top-Level .CLOUD Domain, 11/6/2012,  
      <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2012/11/06/the-battle-for-the-cloud-amazon-proposes-closed-top-level-cloud-domain/?partner=yahootix" target="_blank">http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2012/11/06/the-battle-for-the-cloud-amazon-proposes-closed-top-level-cloud-domain/?partner=yahootix</a>
      <br>
      <br>
      -    Techworld: Problems arise where one entity is seeking
      exclusive use of strings with broad applicability, 11/21/2012,
<a href="http://news.techworld.com/networking/3412616/icann-issues-early-warnings-over-controversial-top-level-domains/" target="_blank">http://news.techworld.com/networking/3412616/icann-issues-early-warnings-over-controversial-top-level-domains/</a><br>

      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      <br>
      I am deeply, deeply concerned! <br>
      Best,<br>
      Kathy<br>
      <br>
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      <br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite">
      <pre>A quote from Karen Lentz (ICANN legal staff): "Under the current rules, there's nothing that would prevent the use of closed generics, which is focused on the issue of who can register a name."

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        <pre>-----Original Message-----
From: NCSG-Discuss [<a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a>] On Behalf
Of William Drake
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 1:18 PM
To: <a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" target="_blank">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a>
Subject: [NCSG-Discuss] new-gtld-committee-not-sure-how-to-handle-
closed-generic-applications

surprise!

<a href="http://www.thedomains.com/2013/02/05/icann-new-gtld-committee-not" target="_blank">http://www.thedomains.com/2013/02/05/icann-new-gtld-committee-not</a>-
sure-how-to-handle-closed-generic-applications/
</pre>
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