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

[Alain Berranger]

+1 to Evan's reminder about charity fraud.

Alain

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 1:21 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:

> 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
>



--
Alain Berranger, B.Eng, MBA
Member, Board of Directors, CECI,
http://www.ceci.ca<http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/>
Executive-in-residence, Schulich School of Business, www.schulich.yorku.ca
Treasurer, Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation, www.gkpfoundation.org
NA representative, Chasquinet Foundation, www.chasquinet.org
Chair, NPOC, NCSG, ICANN, http://npoc.org/
O:+1 514 484 7824; M:+1 514 704 7824
Skype: alain.berranger
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