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US Government Responds Harshly To ICANN gTLD Plans
Posted by
kdawson
on Sun Dec 21, 2008 08:20 PM
from the and-your-shoe's-untied dept.
from the and-your-shoe's-untied dept.
ICANN posted its proposal for expanding gTLDs late in October, and now the US government has issued its scathing response (PDF, 11 pp., linked from there), from the departments of Commerce and Justice. The initial criticism is that John Levine sent a note to a policy mailing list and summarized the concerns raised as ranging from "...insufficient attention to monopoly and consumer protection, to lack of capacity to enforce compliance, to overreach into non-technical areas such as adjudication of morality, to what they'll do with all the extra money since they are a non-profit. Their first concern is that in 2006 the ICANN board said they would commission a study on economic issues in TLD registrations such as whether different TLDs are different markets, substitutability between TLDs, and registry market power, issues which are fairly important in any new TLD process. Here it is two years later, they're rushing to set up the new TLD process, but there's no study. 'ICANN needs to complete this economic study and the results should be considered by the community before new gTLDs are introduced.'"
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ICANN Proposes New Way To Buy Top-Level Domains 198 comments
narramissic writes "Late last week, ICANN put up for comment a new top-level domain (TLD) proposal that would open up the market for generic TLDs on the Internet, basically allowing anyone with $185,000 to buy a new TLD. ICANN has based the cost of a generic TLD on what it believes will be the cost to evaluate applications and protect the organization against risk, said Paul Levins, ICANN's executive officer and vice president for corporate affairs. Any excess money would be redistributed based on the wishes of the Internet community, he said. As of late Tuesday, there were only a couple of comments on the proposal."
[+]
ICANN Might Pre-Register gTLDs To Placate Critics 70 comments
judgecorp writes "ICANN is to be congratulated for succeeding in expanding the Internet beyond the Latin alphabet. However, the organization is facing a harder task in extending the Internet's global top-level domains (gTLDs) — its proposal to open up the gTLD space has been plagued by controversy and delays. INCANN faces struggles with trademark owners and competing businesses — but even so it is being criticized for acting slowly (as seen in transcripts from the recent meeting in Seoul). It now seems likely the body will have a pre-registration scheme to gauge demand and placate critics by getting something moving on new gTLDs."
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Slashdotted? (Score:2)
I get a 404 on that PDF. Anyone have a mirror?
From TFS, I don't really see what all the fuss is about. Why does anyone care? Pretty much anyone can buy a .com name, for any reason, and then resell subdomains -- this is just the same thing, without the .com, and much more expensive.
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Try http://forum.icann.org/lists/gtld-guide/pdfVeSal4DHqu.pdf [icann.org] - it's linked off a linked page off TFA.
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Yes, that 404s on me.
Re:Slashdotted? (Score:5, Informative)
The difference is that for a new TLD, ICANN estimates the fees involved as:
The Evaluation Fee is designed to make the new gTLD program self-funding only. This was a recommendation of the Generic names Supporting Organization (GNSO). A detailed costing methodology â" including historical program development costs, and predictable and uncertain costs associated with processing new gTLD applications through to delegation in the root zone â" estimates a per applicant fee of $US185,000. This is the estimated cost per evaluation in the first application round.
The fee also includes $US100,000 per applicant relating to both fixed and variable costs of processing each application.
So if you have $100,000 to give to ICANN plus another $85K or so for expenses, you can have your proposal for .goatse or .profit considered. For a non-profit organization, it's surprising that it costs $100K for just the application fee. Given that they're essentially opening the floodgates for new TLDs, surely their historic costs for organizational overhead with maintaining only a few TLDs will drop drastically, such that the absurd fees they're charging will no longer be warranted.
I predict the ICANN board members and key employees will be given very hefty bonuses and pay raises to offset the potential for profits.
Parent
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My assumption would be that the $100k is meant as a deterrent to that flood of TLDs. I'm guessing most organizations would rather pay $10 or $50 for a domain or three.
And, hey, it's like the "I Am Rich" app. If the rich want to waste their money, let them.
The only part that's not fair is the fact that one organization gets to monopolize this, and unilaterally decides how much it should cost, what the procedure is, etc. But that hasn't changed, and I have no idea what a good solution is.
Re:Slashdotted? (Score:5, Insightful)
from the day ICANN was created it was pretty much bound to become a corrupt puppet-organization for commercial interests. that's why it's been headed by economists, businessmen, and corporate consultants rather than IT professionals and computer scientists/researchers. the lack of transparency/openness, community dialog, and international input has guaranteed that ICANN's policies serve the interests of corporations like InterNIC rather than the global online community.
it's very tragic that we have such an undemocratic and profit-motivated organization running the internet rather than a more civic-minded and open organization like the W3C, which is actually run by technically competent individuals who are more interested in technological progress than giving kick-backs to their corporate buddies.
Parent
I'll tell you one thing though (Score:3, Insightful)
It is a big step forward from the days when if you wanted a domain name, you had to go to Internic and hack up $75/year. Now you can register at godaddy for $7/year or you can even renew for the "low price" of $30/year by being stupid and replying to those fake-invoices you get in the mail from scam companies when your domain is about to expire.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
" and hack up $75/year"
It was $100 for two years and $50 for renewal per year. 1/3 of that went into the NSF's "Intellectual infrastructutre fund" that NSF staffer Don Mitchell (who started and ran this) wanted to "keep the IETF *process* (not the IETF per se) alive. This fund was pretty much stolen by Mike Roberts the first CEO of ICANN. It was his reward for clearing the way for the ICANN steamroller back a decade ago at it's incepttion.
You all understand the institutional purpose of ICANN is to prevent
Opening TLDs (Score:5, Insightful)
This is such a bad idea. I think any company who buys these will be shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, in the 90s companies generally hated putting http:/// [http] in advertising. Then they dropped the www part and just made it company.com. Now they are having their ultimate dream. To drop the .com part too. But with that comes a major problem. How are average people going to distinguish what is a internet address from something else?
Imagine this, Ford says in its advertising: "Go to ford.com". Its obvious here what to do. Now imagine they get just the TLD 'ford'. So what do you say. "Go to ford"? What the hell does that mean. Now they'll start having to say things like "Type ford into your web browser's address bar" Yeah, that's a whole lot easier to say than ford.com. Idiots.
I hope this totally backfires on all the marketing and sales people in the world so that they learn their lesson.
Re:Opening TLDs (Score:5, Insightful)
The other problem is that the proposed approach essentially is such a mess that it actually shoot itself in the foot. By creating so many new TLDs confusion created, rather that eliminated and we potentially end up in a situation when where TLDs are useless.
Parent
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Re:Opening TLDs (Score:5, Informative)
"tlds largely are useless, anything other than .gov or .edu is a mess"
You mean that .com and -org are a mess. Most tld's are not a mess at all. Country tld's are usually much better managed than those free-for-all domains, with some actual enforcement of who may register what kind of domain.
Parent
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I do not think it is better enforcement, as much as simply not being such an attractive target for domain squatters and speculators.
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tlds largely are useless, anything other than .gov or .edu is a mess
Part of the problem is domain parking. I thought ICANN was meant to crack down on this, but once again money has continued the corruption.
I still think they're doing it all wrong. (Score:2, Insightful)
The original TLD's were fine back when the Internet was primarily a US system.
Now that it is worldwide, they need to look at getting away from new TLD's and going to country code domains(example, .us or .cn). That way each country can establish its own standards for what is and is not allowed.
And for those people who are going to say that it makes more work for the Pepsi people (or whatever) to register pepsi.whatever in each country, there should not be a problem with SCRIPTING that. And I'm sure that they
Re:I still think they're doing it all wrong. (Score:5, Funny)
"Now that it is worldwide, they need to look at getting away from new TLD's and going to country code domains(example, .us or .cn). That way each country can establish its own standards for what is and is not allowed."
Must have been a very comfortable rock, to be sleeping under for so long. ^_^
Sorry - but seriously, that's exactly the system we already have today. Most companies, especially local companies only doing business in their home country (and that is the vast majority of businesses after all) already register only under their country domain, and most country domains already have their own country-specific regulations for their use.
Parent
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That way each country can establish its own standards for what is and is not allowed.
This is the most important reason for control to remain in the hands of the US as long as possible. At least with the US at the helm, crazy theocracies and brutal one-party governments are at least forced to work at preventing the enlightening power of the internet from spoiling all their brainwashing. Besides, your argument is irrelevant as there has long been .co.[nation].
Re:I still think they're doing it all wrong. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
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No offense, but the last thing the world needs to do is become MORE provincial.
The guy in the UK who wants to register a name for his local business can do that today under the UK tld and he doesn't need to worry with .com.
Re:Opening TLDs (Score:5, Insightful)
This is such a bad idea. I think any company who buys these will be shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, in the 90s companies generally hated putting http:/// [http] in advertising. Then they dropped the www part and just made it company.com. Now they are having their ultimate dream. To drop the .com part too. But with that comes a major problem. How are average people going to distinguish what is a internet address from something else?
Imagine this, Ford says in its advertising: "Go to ford.com". Its obvious here what to do. Now imagine they get just the TLD 'ford'. So what do you say. "Go to ford"? What the hell does that mean. Now they'll start having to say things like "Type ford into your web browser's address bar" Yeah, that's a whole lot easier to say than ford.com. Idiots.
I hope this totally backfires on all the marketing and sales people in the world so that they learn their lesson.
I don't know what planet your from, but on planet earth being intrinsically unable to learn lessons is a prerequisite for entry in sales or marketing.
Parent
Re:Opening TLDs (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure you meant this as a joke, but sales and marketing people are no fools. Just because most sales pitches and advertisements are silly and useless to knowledgeable and rational people doesn't mean that they're not generally effective, or that marketers don't work pretty hard to learn what sort of sales pitches work.
Parent
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Interesting. Just typing 'ford' could get you to www.ford.com. No I know, it's just 'ford'.
This is cool, in that it would seem hard to hijack the 'ford' tld.
On the other hand, this would screw with various search toolbars and gizmos, since your browser would have to be prepared to accept 'ford' as a valid URL.
I'm sort of in the mood to see the Google Toolbar (and Yahho!'s also) screwed with. So long as they get Microsoft-anything toolbars as well, I'm for it.
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Or they might say "go to mustang.ford for more info"
People would see the dot, and figure it out.
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Or the advertising community will agree on something short like this:
web: www.ford
Or something like this:
For more information, visit mustang.ford
Or email me at david@us.ford
It's really not that hard to think of some examples where people will understand what you're saying. And with enough advertising, people will catch on very quickly just like they know what "ford.com" means today.
There could even be a symbol, like a globle or arror or something like we see today, when placed
Re:Opening TLDs (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
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SHUT UP, YOU!
JUST SHUT UP!
*points gnarled finger, glares*
(I don't wanna be old anymore.) :/
Re: (Score:2)
So what do you say. "Go to ford"? What the hell does that mean. Now they'll start having to say things like "Type ford into your web browser's address bar" Yeah, that's a whole lot easier to say than ford.com.
I think the idea is that they will register the ford tld and use addresses like: www.ford or car.ford etc.
Most people think that www is compulsory: it is omitted from advertising because people will add it anyway. If you have an address like http://example.com/ [example.com] you have to have a redirect from http://www.example.com/ [example.com]
super duper domain names (Score:5, Funny)
i look forward to visiting h t t p colon slash slash dot slash dot dot slash dot slash
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http://./.././ [.]
Filler for the filter.
This just in... (Score:2, Interesting)
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Bad URL. Get document here. (Score:5, Insightful)
The given URL is no good. Message with Department of Commerce document as attachment is here. [icann.org]
I'm amazed that something this good emerged from regulatory agencies under the Bush Administration. I suspect that some staffers are thinking very hard about what happens to their career once government regulation again gets, as Obama puts it, "adult supervision".
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm amazed that something this good emerged from regulatory agencies under the Bush Administration. I suspect that some staffers are thinking very hard about what happens to their career once government regulation again gets, as Obama puts it, "adult supervision".
I'd be surprised to find out that George Bush is an omnipotent god with an all-seeing eye. Likewise, I'd find it difficult to believe that his administration is ran by a Machiavellian cabal intent on undoing any sanity they come across (stroking pet cats optional).
Instead, this act is likely done by one of the many bureaucrats that are doing their best in their little corner of the Government. They likely operate at a level that does not require the attentions of the President's inner (or even several-tim
For thosing of you wondering what a gTLD was (Score:3, Informative)
A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use on the Internet.
Overall, IANA currently distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:
* infrastructure top-level domain (.arpa)
* country-code top-level domains (ccTLD)
* sponsored top-level domains (sTLD)
* generic top-level domains (gTLD)
* generic-restricted top-level domains
about time (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank goodness for John Levin and Meredith Baker. Voices of sanity above the din. I don't know what is going on at ICANN but it clearly has been disabled by special interests, groupthink, and dispersion of responsibility. Their "any tld is fine with us" plan (originally proposed by France's Internic) shows such a profound lack of concern for the consequences that it's clear the bulk of their membership is simply not technically qualified.
The downside this all illustrates, beyond any doubt, is that ICANN does not and can not work in its present format. It needs to be reconstituted to insure that all members have no conflicts of interest and sufficient experience and expertise with technical and security issues. I hope it can retain the non-profit status and multi-country membership, without being so inclusive (of small countries) that it cannot avoid being corrupted as ISO was when Microsoft bought the ISO's endorsement for OOXML, or ICANN itself was when Verisign did the same to win the exclusive contract for .com.
Internet confusion (Score:4, Insightful)
Some other overlooked problems are:
a. The internet would become further disorganized. It's already plenty disorganized, but at least the majority of web sites out there are under the
b.
c. Lastly, no mention is made as to who would be maintaining the new gTLDs, so I'm assuming that maintenance is left in the hands of the companies buying the gTLDs. This could mean that the quality of the DNS registries and root nameservers for TLDs would decrease. This is really bad, because currently, it's these DNS registries and the 13 root nameservers located around the world that control the internet.
Thus, I side with the government on this one; ICANN is just looking for ways to make more money.
Good thing! (Score:3, Insightful)
Good thing we have a well organized, international body to regulate this process! Otherwise shit like this article would be happening all the time.
OH SHI...
Correct Link (Score:2)
Should be: http://forum.icann.org/lists/gtld-guide/pdf5GxptFPV1D.pdf [icann.org]
The post doesn't make sense (Score:3, Informative)
Am I the only person who noticed that the sentence:
is nonsensical? The criticism is not that John Levine sent a note. Rather, John Levine sent a note summarizing the US government's criticism. I don't care about fine points of prescriptive grammar, but it would be nice if posts made sense.
I know! (Score:2)
what they'll do with all the extra money since they are a non-profit.
1. Allow creation of generic TLDs that are very lucrative for you.
2. ???
3. Not Profit!
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
But why the heck is the header for this article red on the front page?
Have you ever been tested [wikipedia.org]?
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Re: (Score:3)
hm i didnt think slashdot even HAD a red header. Are you perhaps colorblind?
No. He is not colorblind. For one thing, colorblindness doesn't mean you see the wrong color, it means it is very hard to distinguish between certain colors. Thus complaining that a color is "wrong" is probably the last thing a colorblind person would do.
And yes, it probably was red. I've seen the phenomenon myself a few times over the last week or two. It has only been on the top most article and only when it was relatively "fr
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
If you bought the slashdot subscription then you get to see articles before a non-subscriber. These articles are always with a red border. The only thing is you are not allowed to post responses until they turn green.
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I'm onboard. I hate the current DNS setup, so go write a RFC.
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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All the governments that don't have the same level of free speech (pretty much just the US) delve into censorship via guise of morality.
Indeed, the US government even had the clarity of mind to come up with free speech zones!