Opinions? Fwd: [] List of possible approaches for Red Cross/IOC names in new gTLDS

[Evan Leibovitch]

I don't know how welcome it is, but there has been some discussion of the
issue at ALAC.

(What follows is my own interpretation of the at-large PoV; others' mileage
may vary.)

Until recently there was widespread agreement with keeping the status quo.
But the stance has of late become a little more nuanced.

We have absolutely no sympathy for the IOC or its franchisees, or IGOs in
general (that already have the elite ability to register in dot-int). But
while we don't want to make any specific exemptions for the Red Cross, we
feel there is a legitimate discussion to be had about attempts to spoof
charities.

There, are, unfortunately, real instances of domains created to
deliberately confuse potential donors (especially domains quickly created
in the aftermath of disasters), often by in part appropriating the names of
known charities such as the Red Cross. There are many in At-Large who
believe that the domain system has some responsibility to prevent such
clear instances of abuse, which has the potential to expand significantly
upon expansion of the TLD namespace. What is less clear is how to do this,
but simply doing nothing does not appear to be a reasonable option. What is
hoped for is a reasonably easy process to stop sites designed to commandeer
charitable donations, in such a way that does not draw substantial funds or
focus from the real charities' core objectives.

This is more of a 2LD issue than a TLD one, but very real nonetheless. We
would prefer to generalize it, since charities besides the Red Cross suffer
from this kind of fraud. And we prefer to approach this from the PoV of
safeguarding the trust and needs of donors and supporters as opposed to
trademark and trademark-like "rights". However, a complete response of "do
nothing, everything's OK" may indicate an ICANN that is insensitive to the
public consequences of its policies, and indeed a mis-functioning (or at
least imbalanced) MSM.

- Evan
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