[ncdnhc-discuss] ccSO

[Milton Mueller]

I am also skeptical of a ccSO proposal, although for
very different reasons. But there are also reasons to
favor it. It depends on the alternatives.

Unlike Crispin, who views them as a special interest,
I view the ccTLDs as basically registries, not much
different from Neulevel or Verisign. In quite a few
cases they are also registrars. So their fundamental
economic interests are very much in line with the
so-called "suppliers." 

The ccSO's argue against this position by pointing 
out that most cc's have governance structures 
imposed on them that make them more representative 
of a defined internet community in a country. This 
argument has some merit. Even Louis Touton 
proposes to treat them as "sponsored" TLDs
in his contractual scheme. 
However, even if ccTLDs are representative 
of a national Internet community (some are
not) they are still fundamentally registries.

If ccTLDs were required to provide full 
representation to user groups and individual
domain name holders then a ccSO makes
sense. If we just take the existing ccTLD
constituency and make it into a SO, I would
oppose it.

A more long term issue: as the TLD space expands 
I expect the domain registration share of ccTLDs 
to shrink. Then they might be overrepresented
in ICANN's structure if we give them their own
SO. Like the telephone monopolies in ITU, they
might try to structure DNS regulations in ways
that would preserve their market share.