[NCSG-Discuss] Independent Objector Weighs In on "closed/private" tlds

[William Drake]

Hi Milton

On Mar 17, 2013, at 1:34 PM, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> wrote:

> Important lesson for all NCSG members: 
> People who get on the GNSO Council often absorb assumptions and attitudes about policies that are contrary to our principles and not fully supported by either the membership or our stakeholder group. It's very easy to do, I know because I've been there. You engage in intense discussions with the other councilors and SGs. The paremeters of your thinking start getting constrained by what the others think. You start thinking, "well no one else supports this or even thinks about it in a principled way, so why bother to challenge it." Case in point, Mr. David Cake:

An alternative explanation that's a bit less arrogant and condescending might be that your adult colleagues are capable of arriving at reasoned opinions even if you don't agree with them.  

Personally, I can fully understand why people in South American might not be thrilled to have the names of regions that are integral to their history, lived experience and collective identities appropriated and conflated with some products marketed by, um, wealthy Norteños.  Trying to make it all about evil rent seeking states doesn't shed much light when those states are defending positions that would be adamantly supported by most of their publics if they knew this is going on.  I'm not opposed to closed generics in principle, but in some cases I do think they can be problematic, and here I'd rather amazon and patagonia just get on with life under .com (as they do now, apparently not too repressed) with its plainly commercial selling stuff connotations.  But of course, I was on Council too, so perhaps I'm a brainwashed ninny incapable of rational thought…:-)

How would folks in your neck of the woods feel if someone got .syracuse in order to market, I don't know, anti-Santorum products?  You'd tell them sides of the dot don't matter, the GNSO council decided not to worry about this some years ago, etc?  And that'd settle the matter?

Cheers

Bill
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