A representative of the Young Men’s Christian Association of the United States of America (YMCA) and Esther Dyson will appear before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation a full committee hearing on ICANN’s expansion of top level domains today (Thursday).Others who will be appearing include ICANN’s Kurt Pritz, Fiona Alexander from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Dan Jaffe from the Association of National Advertisers and the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight.While it is predictable that Jaffe will rant against the introduction of new gTLDs, it is to be hoped the committee will ask why the organisation has only belatedly come to the party in opposing new gTLDs.The proposal for new gTLDs has been around since the mid-2000s and the ANA has even submitted comments on the proposal around 2008. Something Robert Liodice, the organisation’s president and CEO, forgot when writing his ill-informed letter to ICANN’s CEO and president in August 2011. Embarrassingly for the ANA and Liodice, Beckstrom refuted many of the issues noted in their letter and outlined how comments including the ANA’s had been taken into account when formulating new gTLD policy.Esther Dyson is an oddity. She was ICANN’s inaugural chair and has become a vocal opponent of new gTLDs, in an article she wrote for the Project Syndicate in August that new gTLDs do not “actually create any new value.””The value is in people’s heads – in the meanings of the words and the brand associations – not in the expanded namespace. In fact, the new approach carves up the namespace: the value formerly associated with Apple could now be divided into Apple.computers, apple.phone, ipod.apple, and so on.”Dyson believes “this sounds confusing [and] that is because it is.”Possibly, on the face of it, strangest appearance will be from Angela Williams, the General Counsel of the YMCA in the US. Kieren McCarthy on his dotNXT blog has dug a little deeper. McCarthy notes that the reason they are appearing is solely because of the intellectual property lobby.”The YMCA turned up for the first time at an ICANN meeting at the most recent meeting in Dakar just over a month ago,” wrote McCarthy. “Incredibly its representative, Michael Carson, immediately became the person in charge of both communication and membership for the newly formed Not-for-Profit Operational Concerns Constituency (NPOC).””Michael’s sudden elevation is thanks to the NPOC’s chair, Debra Hughes. Debra represents the Red Cross but is viewed by some in the ICANN constituency she represents – the non-commercial stakeholders group – as a Trojan Horse for intellectual property interests.”
Tag Archives: Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight
US Senate Committee To Hold Hearings On New gTLD Concerns
The US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation announced they will hold a full committee hearing on ICANN’s plan to introduce new generic Top Level Domains on Thursday 8 December at 10:00 local time.The hearing will examine the merits and implications of this new program and ICANN’s continuing efforts to address concerns raised by the Internet community.Commenting on the concerns expressed by some in the marketing and advertising industry, which have recently seen the formation of Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (CRIDO), Kieren McCarthy writes “the situation is more complex than that however and the anti-gTLD campaign has some serious concerns which it will make sure the Senate Committee members are fully apprised of.”McCarthy notes:
those concerns were most clearly expressed at ICANN’s recent meeting in Dakar where Steve DelBianco from the organization’s business constituency outlined four issues that were unresolved:
- Terms of use compliance: the requirement for applicants to use new registries the way that they publicly state they will is not written into the current contract and so ICANN would be helpless to act if companies subsequent change their approach.
- Applications for gTLD IDNs: the biggest positive benefit from the program will likely come from the creation of Internet extensions in languages other than English. The highly US-focused ICANN has failed to recognise that value.
- Trademark protection: there are no less than three new IP rights mechanisms in place for new gTLDs, but an applicant is currently in a position to turn one of the most important off as soon as they launch.
- Registrar code of conduct: there are a significant number of concerns over how registrars – the companies that sell domains – act and what they are obliged to do. ICANN continues to resist efforts to improve the situation.
McCarthy then notes “It is almost certain that there will be a strong call for ICANN to do one of two things. Either:
- Postpone the program until remaining concerns have been tackled, or
- Limit applications in the first round to either very safe applications or a limited number of new extensions.”
McCarthy then goes on to say what he believes ICANN should do and what they will do with the full article available at news.dot-nxt.com/2011/12/02/senate-hearing-gtlds.The hearing will be webcast live via the Senate Commerce Committee website at commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Home. It is advised to refresh the page ten minutes prior to the scheduled hearing start time to automatically begin streaming the webcast.