ICANN Paris Meeting, New TLDS Likely

More top level domains are likely to be approved following this week’s ICANN meeting in Paris. With suggestions ranging from a couple of dozen to thousands of TLDs that could be approved, this would be a significant opening up of the number of TLDs, up from the six that were available back in 1985 when the domain name system began.

More top level domains are likely to be approved following this week’s ICANN meeting in Paris. With suggestions ranging from a couple of dozen to thousands of TLDs that could be approved, this would be a significant opening up of the number of TLDs, up from the six that were available back in 1985 when the domain name system began.There has been a long and somewhat complicated process for applying for, and then receiving approval for new TLDs. Subsequent to the original six approved (.com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .net and .org), .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum and .name were added in 2001 followed by others including .asia, .jobs, .pro and .travel. There is also .tel to come online, with sunrise registration of .tel names to begin in December. These are in addition to the over 200 ccTLDs available.The proposed new TLDs were a topic of discussion at last week’s Domainer Meeting, also here in Paris (see earlier posting) with common questions being whether companies will need to defensively register their brands and trademarks and whether domainers will take interest. A common consensus to both issues was no. It will take time for there to be much interest in any new TLDs. For domainers, it will take some time before a critical mass is reached before internet users will consider typing in new TLD domain names. For similar reasons it is not likely established brands and trademarks will bother registering names in any new spaces that eventuate, not at least until they gain some traction within the community.ICANN’s Government Advisory Committee has called for protection of country, territory and place names, so, as reported by IDG, that governments will be able to stop commercial registrars selling off their virtual real estate. And as IDG note, exactly what constitutes a placename, or who should own it, remains unclear, so we’ll have to find out whether .paris will point to Paris, France or Paris, Texas.IDG also reported “Morality was of more concern to members of the At-large Advisory Committee, a group representing users, in a meeting Tuesday morning. They fear that language in the draft policy about the protection of ‘morality and public order’ could be used by governments to censor free speech, but ICANN staff maintain that such language is common in international treaties, and that few bodies would be eligible to raise objections under such rules.”To read more, see the IDG report at www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147512/debate_over_new_toplevel_domains_drags_on.html. Also see the BBC News report at news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7468855.stm and the International Herald Tribune report at iht.com/articles/2008/06/22/business/net23.php.

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