Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
New
ICANN CEO Takes a Slap at Domain Investors in Letter to
Congressmen Defending Planned Flood of New gTLDs
Those
who have been wonderingwhere
new ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom would come
down on the organization's highly controversial plan to
flood the Internet with new gTLDs now have an answer to
their question. Yesterday Beckstrom sent a detailed
letter responding to concerns about the
plan raised by two of the U.S. House Judiciary
Committee's top Republicans, Lamar Smith and Howard
Coble.
As
you might expect, since ICANN could potentially reap an
enormous financial windfall by charging operators of new
gTLD registries fees running well into six-figures,
Beckstrom defended the plan and suggested
"competition" would be harmed if rollout of new
gTLDS is delayed, suggesting that the 21 gTLDs already
available do not offer enough alternatives (even though
the vast majority of those extensions are still severely
under-utilized years after their introduction,
indicating little interest among the general public in new
extensions).
Beckstrom
also took a slap at .com domain investors writing,
"In the end, calling for a delay in the entry of new
gTLDs only serves to perpetuate existing market conditions:
concentration within some existing registries, with most
short generic strings unavailable, and those that trade on
the value of the current marketplace, holding portfolios
based upon the value of current .com names."
There
are a number of other troubling comments in the letter, so
we would advise you to read it in its entirety yourself.
One thing that is now obvious is that ICANN is not going
to give up what it apparenty believes will be a golden
goose on its own. Of course, there is a long line of
government, business and even internal factions within
ICANN that want the decision taken out of ICANN's
hands if necessary. Just yesterday CADNA
(the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse - an organization
that represents business that own many world-famous
trademarks) issued a letter
calling for a full scale government audit of
ICANN.
CADNA
blasted ICANN on ten separate points including
lack of transparency and being more interested in
making a profit than working for the benefit of
Internet users. CADNA also objected to what they
called the "poorly conceived" plan to
roll
out
an unlimited number of new gTLDs noting "This
rollout expands the size of the Internet
exponentially without first performing a sound
cost/benefit and security and risk analysis to
determine both desirability among and risk to
Internet users."
There
is undoubtedly going to be a lot more fur
flying in this ongoing debate - the outcome of
which could have a major impact on your
business, thus making it a topic you need to keep
a very close eye on.
Another
part of Beckstrom's letter to the Congressmen
addresses the Joint Project Agreement (JPA)
between ICANN and the U.S. Government that ends September
30. ICANN wants to be set free and
become an independent entity but government
officials have balked at that proposal. We have
been hearing widespread rumors that ICANN and the
government will agree to extend the JPA,
this time without a firm expiration date set on
the new agreement.
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