IOC/Red Cross public comments period

[Alex Gakuru]

 Thank you for this opportunity to express a strong opposition to granting
special rights to International Olympics Committee and International Red
Cross.

The new gTLD programme was designed to liberate a hitherto
naming-constrained domain space. Democratise the domain names by widening
allowed name types thereby increasing innovation, consumer choice and an
equitable participation by all people of the world. Expand and protect
space  for expression and contexts to others and the missing, unheard
voices around the world.

As of 04 March, 2012 www.acronymfinder.com reported 96 verified and 250
other definitions for IRC and 76 verified 250 other definitions for IOC. (
Annex I to this message)

Any ICANN Board decision to grant “IRC” and “IOC” special, exclusive name
rights to International Olympics Committee and International Red Cross
essentially means cutting off denying 670 other online existing
organisations rights to their own names. Plausible risks including being
viewed as censorship via ICANN domain naming policy.

As of 31 December, 2011, we accounted for a paltry 6.2 per cent of global
internet users numbers.  In June 2011 the global average of people to
domain name stood at a ratio 90:1, Africa's ratio was  10,000 people per
domain name. (See Annex II to this message.)

Africa is rich in names and content which her peoples are now very busy
preparing to take online.

Any such names special protections precedents translates to denying Africa
their names, at present not online, and unfortunate policy reinforcing
belief that developed countries interests resolve to ensure that Africa
remains enslaved in the modern age digital plantations. Therefore very
strongly opposed to this serious threat entire Africa's public interest.

Trusting reasonable, global, multi-stakeholder, consensus driven ICANN
cannot permit “all names equal but some are more equal than others ”
further considering, “For delegation requests for new generic TLDS (gTLDs),
the Contractor shall include documentation to demonstrate how the  proposed
string has received consensus support from relevant  stakeholders and is
supported by the global public interest."

Regardless of any powerful stakeholder and/or special interests pushing for
preferential treatment of Red Cross and IOC, I urge the ICANN Board to
decline granting such selective special protections.

Should Red Cross and IOC be granted any special name rights, this precedent
may spark endless name disputes and possible litigations with ICANN at the
centre.

Respectfully submitted,


Alex Gakuru, Africa Representative
Non-Commercial Users Constituency

04 March, 2012

(Annexes attached)

On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 7:49 PM, Konstantinos Komaitis <
k.komaitis at strath.ac.uk> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> The public comments period concerning the special protection for the Red
> Cross and Olympic terms has now opened and can be accessed through
> http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/ioc-rcrc-proposal-02mar12-en.htm
>
> As you know this is an issue which has raised and continues to raise
> significant issues relating to transparency, multistakeholder input , the
> role of the GAC and its relationship with the GNSO as well as issues
> relating to the expansion of existing rights to the potential detriment of
> other rights holders.
>
> May I request that everybody who has commented, and everyone who wanted to
> comment, to please do so? The timeframe is considerably strict, but at some
> point there was even a suggestion to skip it!
>
> Cheers
>
> Konstantinos
>
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