Brainstorming on an answer to the gTLDs imbroglio...

[Milton Mueller]

Carlos:

I'm not convinced there is an "imbroglio" that needs to be "answered"
through special and de novo institutional arrangements.

Addition of new gTLDs has since 1995 faced the following questions.
Each of these questions has been discussed intensively

1. How many?
This one has pretty much been answered to everyone's satisfaction, as I
hope you would agree. NRC study, Paul Hoffmann, Vixie, Mockapetris and
virtually every honest technical person agrees that it is technically
possible to create anywhere between 90 or so per year to a million.
Right now the consensus seems to be that the safest path is to create
tens of new TLDs each year without any appreciable stability risk.

2. Impact on trademark holders
The old argument about defensive registrations by existing name
holders. We now know a lot about that, based on experience in com, net
org, and in the new gTLDs info and biz. Basically, you can't really make
a go of a new TLD business just by selling defensive registrations.
ICANN itself commissioned a big study of this.
http://www.icann.nl/tlds/new-gtld-eval-31aug04.pdf There will be some
defensive registrations, but as the number of gTLDs increases the need
for that diminishes. Still, a few big multinational TM holders want to
own words and would prefer that no new name spaces be created. And there
are all kinds of ways to protect vested interests with "sunrise" or
challenge procedures, although some of those are illegitimate.

3. Process
How should they be selected? Auctions, lotteries, beauty contests,
achievement of sainthood, expert committees, etc. No resolution of that
yet, but ICANN is right now taking that issue up. No doubt it will come
up with a clumsy compromise. It would be better for you to introduce
your opinions into that proceeding that to propose a "start from
scratch" process that will never obtain support from Europe, North
America, ICANN, private sector and most of ICANN-involved civil society.
And if by some miracle it did happen, the results would probably just
reproduce the evolution of opinion within ICANN, leading to a 4 year
delay for no real purpose.



Dr. Milton Mueller
Syracuse University School of Information Studies
http://www.digital-convergence.org
http://www.internetgovernance.org