From the ICANN meeting in Brussels this week there are a few more “sticky points” that coming out of the new gTLD process.
The sticky points as I call them are issues raised by commentators in the public sessions on the new gTLD’s.
Many of the issue surround who is disqualified from owning a gTLD.
The guidebook requires a background check on all officers, directors and owners of 15% or more of a new gTLD.
Some members of the Arab community seem to be quite upset with the language in the Guidebook banning terrorists from owning or being part of a new gTLD registry.
“What exactly is a Terrorist”; “One countries terrorist is another countries freedom fighter” and “isn’t this just racial profiling” were by in large the most frequent comments I heard in people make in objecting to the inclusion the term Terrorist as a disqualifying factor in gTLD applications.
So ICANN got another sticky issue on their hands.
Who is going to define who is a terrorist, those in the Arab world are not happy using lets say a list prepared by the US, what company is going to do the background checks on people,
Do they scrap the terrorist label altogether and risk having a someone responsible for a bombing in say New York in a leadership roll?
Do they block people from the process who have really done nothing wrong but found themselves on the “Do not fly list”?
Of course ICANN didn’t do themselves or anyone else any favors by not providing any right of appeal from the finding of the background check process.
So as it sits, if whomever is put in charge of the background checks, (also not determined) deems you a terrorist then you are one, with no right to appeal.
Likewise another group of people placed into the category of those not eligible to be part of the new gTLD process are those who “engaged in a pattern of Intellectual property infringement.
Now before you think this is limited to domainers who infringe on trademarks, think again
The Guidebook does not limit the disqualified people to just domainers, but includes any IP violations.
Ever download a song from Napster or Limewire?
Ever visit thepiratebay.org and watch a movie for free?
You’re an IP violator.
Do it twice in your life, you may have been engaged in a pattern.
Your barred.
Disqualified.
Like a Terrorist.
Now here’s another group that is barred by the Guidebook from meaningful participation.
Felons.
Convicted Felons.
The worst of the worst.
Child Murders.
Rapists.
They are also banned by Guidebook from being involved in the new gTLD’s.
But here’s the difference.
Child murders and rapists are only banned for 10 years.
IP infringers are banned for life.
Of course a convicted felon is self defining.
If you have it on your record you have it.
A “pattern of IP infringement” is not defined at all by the guidebook.
One could argue that as little as two instances is a pattern.
Three certainly could certainly be.
When it comes to domains and trademark infringement The Guidebook fails to take into account its quite different for someone owning 10 domains whose loses 2 UDRP’s as opposed to someone with 100,000 domains who lose 2 UDRP’s.
None of its defined and that of course what makes for some nice, lengthy and expensive lawsuits.
And I did I tell you earlier there is no right of appeal.
So if this unnamed background check firm says you were engaged in a pattern of IP infringement, you have no right to appeal to get that overturned.
You have the Scarlett Letter and you wear it for life.
Talking about some murky waters, there is a swap surrounding many “Country and Territory” proposed extensions.
Under the Guidebook, no country or Territory gTLD’s will be allowed in the first round.
Yet look at the sponsors of the ICANN meeting and right up front is .Quebec.
Now Quebec is a lovely place, especially in the summer, if you get a chance I highly recommend a trip to Montreal or Quebec city or both.
Good people, excellent food, gorgeous buildings.
But wait, there are no territories to be allowed in the 1st round so why is .Quebec sponsoring the ICANN meeting now?
I asked this question to the .Quebec people who informed me the .Quebec application is not based on a territory, but a culture.
Wow
That’s a thin line.
.Africa another sponsor of the ICANN meeting is planning on applying in the first round.
Africa is a continent, but not a territory?
People ask why has the new gTLD process taken so long?
How could it not?
The whole gTLD process is full of landmines, lawsuits, special interests.
Every time ICANN tries to step over one they step into something else.
The only thing for sure is that there will be big winners and huge losers in this process.
and it promises to be the greatest show on earth, at least in the internet world, for the next few years.
The parent company of Minds + Machines, Top Level Domain Holdings [AIM: TLDH] reported their revenue for the period to the end of April with £32,000 ($49,000), with a loss of £462,000 ($708,000). The company is pretty much in a holding pattern until the release of the new gTLDs by ICANN and is expecting finalization of ICANN’s new gTLD Applicant Guidebook by November and is hoping for the opening of the first round at the ICANN Meeting in December. The company still has almost £4m in cash and equivalents and appears to have been bootstrapping operations. One of the former key-employees, Jothan Frakes, is not with the company any more. Potential threats to the company could be further delays of the release of new gTLDs through litigation.
