June 23, 2008

Ten Reasons Why ICANN Should Not Create New Domain Name Rush

Link: ICANN to vote on new Internet domain names | Tech news blog - CNET News.com.

ICANN will vote on Thursday on whether to allow companies to purchase Top Level Domain names of their own choosing, at a cost of an estimated $50,000 apiece, with disputes settled through auctions.

I have not reviewed the details of the proposal, but the reports are alarming. This seems like a poor idea for many reasons, including the following:

1. It will impose enormous costs on trademark holders, who will now have to police yet larger virtual spaces, including, for the first time, TLD spaces. Companies will have to enter into auctions to claim their names.

2. It will increase web-surfer bewilderment, unnecessarily complicating a system to which surfers have become accustomed.

3. It will create enormous profits for the few who have the capital to invest in this space--profit that results not from creating something useful, but just by gaining the right to hand out (secondary) domain names.

4. What does ICANN plan to do with the enormous revenues this will generate?

5. A go-slow approach behooves ICANN; radical changes to the domain name system will only generate confusion and ill-will.

6. Current investors in domain names may find the value of their investments eroded by the enormous increase in the supply of domain names (though they will argue that the ".com" TLD, for example, will remain a marquee space).

7. The increase in the amount of speculative activity will be immense; the litigation that will ensue is likely to occupy courts for many years to come.

8. ICANN can increase domain name space in far more measured terms.

9. The number of controversial TLDs will be enormous--who will own ".Jesus" or ".America" or ".Islam"?

10. The expansion is likely to generate significant international conflicts.

Update: ICANN's board unanimously approved the measure. Newer reports suggest that the price of admission may be half a million dollars or more, not $50,000, as the earlier reports indicated.

Posted by Anupam Chander on June 23, 2008 at 09:17 PM in Digitization | Permalink