[LINK] Esther Dyson on TLD Proliferation

[David Goldstein]

There is so much misinformation about new gTLDS it's not funny.
 
First, Darrell, I have been on the same two auDA panels as you and it's simply untrue to infer that panels are dominated or influenced by people who will benefit from new registrations. Panels are actually dominated by lawyers who in the main make up spurious stories about trademark protection issues. And dominated by people who are inward looking and don't want to acknowledge that there are things done better at other ccTLDs.
 
Esther Dyson's complaints are largely unfounded. She is probably unaware that in the Geman ccTLD there are 14.5m registrations. Hence finding a good, usable domain name can be difficult. She and others seem to be unaware that many global brands do not register in all ccTLDs and gTLDs even now. Sure there will be some registrations for defensive purposes, but there are also good trademark protections being developed.
 
AFNIC, the French registry, released a report this week that showed the length of domain names are getting longer too. And longer domain names mean domain names that are not so user-friendly, on average. The French also are a guide for Australia. A few years ago AFNIC allowed individuals to register domain names, and now around 40% of registrations are by individuals. In .AU I was about the only person advocating registration of domain names, either at the second level or in com.au, for individuals which is where people want to register domains now. Give people a choice, as a number of ccTLDs do, and people overwhelmingly prefer registrations at the second level. In .AT (Austria) around 97% of registrations are at the second level and 2% in co.at. But now in .AU we have this a change in policy that allows people to register their names and nicknames, and following the panel to register general interest domains in id.au. But people won't use it. Look at
 the paltry numbers of id.au registrations there are.
 
To argue that increasing the number of TLDs is a license for registrars to print money is stupid. It's like saying building roads is a license for car manufacturers to print money. With bad policies it could be. But building roads is also about allowing people to get around. It's not that there isn't and won't be bad policy, but with the discussions that have been ongoing for over 5 years at ICANN, the policy is good. It could be better too, but there are many competing interests.
 
On the Names Policy Panel I would introduce examples of other ccTLDs and how .AU could be improved. Not once did anyone on the panel have examples of ccTLD policy failure that could be used as evidence against changes.
 
David


----- Original Message -----
> From: Darrell Burkey <darrell.burkey at anu.edu.au>
> To: Jan Whitaker <jwhit at melbpc.org.au>; link at anu.edu.au
> Cc: 
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 December 2011 12:43 PM
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Esther Dyson on TLD Proliferation
> 
> 
> 
> On 14/12/11, Jan Whitaker  <jwhit at melbpc.org.au> wrote:
>>  I'm thinking of the multipliers beneath each TLD, not the top level 
>>  so much. Think how many brand.NEWtld there will be as defensive 
>>  positions. Do I have that wrong?
>> 
>>  It's really a license to print money for the registrars.
>> 
> I've participated on two auDA Domain Name Policy Review panels over the past 
> few years. Those panels include a significant representation of those who 
> benefit from policies that increase registrations.
> 
> No points for guessing which policies they advocate and vote for. I haven't 
> been very popular for pointing this out. The auDA board is not required to act 
> on the recommendations of review panels however....
> 
> Cheers.
> 
> --
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Darrell Burkey
> UNIX Systems Administrator
> College of Asia & the Pacific
> Australian National University
> Ph: (02) 6125 4160
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