[ncdnhc-discuss] guidance on .org

[Kent Crispin]

On Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 03:16:13PM -0500, Rob Courtney wrote:
> I agree that market enforcement of .org's identity as a resource for 
> non-commercial organization could be tough, though I don't agree with 
> Dave that the notion of a "sponsored unrestricted" domain is on its 
> face incoherent.

By the definitions currently in use, "sponsored unrestricted" is
basically an oxymoron.   "Unrestricted" trumps everything else, really. 

> I realize that the NC may not be receptive to this 
> any more, but it seems (at least to me) possible to define the .org 
> sponsor's constituency and authorities without resorting to 
> registration restrictions.

Without registration restrictions (I include as registration
restrictions special contractual constraints on registrars, since
special constraints on registrars essentially create a new registrar
accreditation agreement, something that only sponsored TLDs are able to
do) registrars market the TLD as they wish. 

> That said, and w/r/t the two proposals you listed in your message, I 
> think the first (unsponsored, unrestricted) is vastly preferable to 
> the second (sponsored, restricted). As has been said many times on 
> this list, it doesn't seem possible to have restrictions on .org 
> registrations without negatively affecting important non-commercial 
> usages, or online expression in general.

?? A sponsored TLD could be MUCH more supportive of online expression
than an unsponsored TLD -- please recall that the DRP for a sponsored
TLD can be very different from the DRP for an unrestricted TLD.  While I
don't think it is realistic to think that .org could ever avoid some
kind of accomodation of trademark interests, the DRP rules could be
substantially more supportive of individual expression than the UDRP
provides. 

Moreover, I think that a good case could be made that an unrestricted
TLD is *always* a de-facto commercial TLD, and I believe that a number
of contractual consequences flow from that determination.

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
kent at songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain