Daily Domainer

Bruce Tonkin and Kurt Pritz shared some interesting information on the progress towards creating new generic top level domains (gTLDs) at the March 2007 ICANN meetings in Portugal.

Tonkin began the session by providing a history of domains, going back as far as when domain names were more like domain codes (IP addresses) because they were numeric instead of alpha-character oriented. The background information was to catch up audience members on why there is a need for some of the policies that are being put into place as ICANN prepares to introduce more gTLDs.

Tonkin went on to point out that the process that the gTLD committee is working on is based on current ICANN values and the ICANN mission. Next, he began outlining the some of the latest developments that had occurred regarding gTLDs since the last ICANN meeting in Sao Paulo:

IDNs Approved
• The gTLD committee has decided to allow the use of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and but will only introduce them to the public after all issues related to them have been tested an all kinks have been worked out. The introduction of IDN gTLDs would allow for the use of special characters in top level domains.

String Issue Policies
• New top level domains must not be confusingly similar to an existing top-level name. For example, .inet could be too easily confused with the already existing .net.

• New TLDs must not infringe the existing legal rights of others. A “Protecting Rights of Others” work group has been formed to more clearly define the parameters of those “legal rights.”

• For new gTLDs there's an appendix in their agreement that specifies a number of categories of words that are restricted at the second level, including single and two-character strings. Additional restrictions will apply to accommodate the pending use of IDNs.

• Finally, new gTLDs “must not be contrary to generally accepted legal norms relating to morality and public order.” So clearly, there are a lot of regulations that must be adhered to.

Application Issues
• Regarding potential opposition to applications: “…if someone wants to apply for a particular TLD that there are obviously strongly interested parties, the criteria for not accepting it is that there must be no substantial opposition from among significant institutions of economic, geographic, cultural or language community for which that TLD string is intended to support.”

Following Tonkin, Kurt Pritz spoke about the staffing requirements that all of the proposed plans regarding the new gTLDs will likely require and he was followed up by a run through of what the application process will be for the new gTLDs.

In a nutshell, the application process will occur in several phases (Technical and business criteria met? String requirements met? Public comment period), unless there are issues as described above. In which case, the process will be lengthier. Once Pritz was done speaking, the floor was opened up for discussion on the topics discussed and other topics related to the new gTLDs.

In response to Milton Mueller, who wondered why TLDs will be subject to such a rigorous approval process when it is in fact already permissible to register all kinds of offensive .com domains, Bruce Tonkin pointed out that the key difference is scarcity. There are 40 million .com domains, and adding another offensiveword.com domain is just another drop in the ocean. But there are only a handful of TLDs, and this "artificial scarcity" brings with it close scrutiny.

Jordyn Buchanan offered an obvious solution:

[...] get rid of scarcity and then you don't have any of the issues anymore. The most open approach possible to making it possible to add a large number of new TLDs relatively quickly would do a much better job at resolving these issues than anything we're going to do with a complicated procedure that we're going to have to funnel everyone through.

Karl Manheim pointed out how over the years, ICANN has transformed itself from an engineering body to an organization that sets public policy. And now, with the rules governing the introduction of new TLDs, ICANN will go yet another step and effectively become a judicial body that has the final say in whether a TLD is accepted or not.

The full transcript is available here. Bruce Tonkin's presentation notes are available as a PDF file.

Categories: Domain Extensions, Domain Industry
Tags: icann, tld