Generic domain names

[Jean-Noel Frydman <jnf@france.com>]

Hello everyone!

Let me first introduce myself: I'm Jean-Noel Frydman, founder of France
OnLine. I'm speaking here not as a representative of a international
corporation, organisation, nor institute but, as one of many thousands of
so called web-entrepreneurs.

Three years ago I quit everything to start a company solely based on the
Internet, and I was blessed to get (for free!!! at the time) the domain
name france.com. 

There is no doubt that the presence on the Internet we have been able to
create over the last three years  was due, in no small part, to that domain
name. We have continued to expand, in good times and bad times, because of
that domain name.

Now, I speak for thousands of other individuals and companies who have had
the same course in the last few years, and who may, or may not, be aware of
the IAHC and the proposal to add new iTLD's. These are people who have
labored to create a brand new form of content and a world-wide presence
often helped by their domain name.They have, in fact built and created
something entirely new out of just this: a domain name.

Now, before I go on, I'd like to say that I am entirely in favor of
breaking the Internic's monopoly on iTLD's. I am in favor of it because I
am against monopolies  in general. I am in favor of it on a philosophical
point of view, so to speak...

What I'd like to see from the IAHC is a practical way of resolving what may
be very damaging to companies like ours, around the world, who have
contributed to the Internet and have each in his own way, help make it what
it is today...

Enough with this. Let's take an example: In 6 months from now there is a
new iTLD registry for the suffix .travel. Needless to say I'll do what I
can to register france.travel (after all, we were the first ones to publish
a web guide for travel to France and my credentials are as good (better!)
than any body else's). Now, I read that some proposal are for putting those
kind (generic) of domain names for sale to the highest bidder. That would
be WRONG! If I have to compete with Microsoft for that domain name, I can
tell you right now who's going to end up with it! It would be the opposite
of the reason why I decided to go on and launch a company on the Internet
in the first place. 

If, on the other end, it is given on a first-come first served basis it's
going to be a wild stampede, and the problem we are trying to avoid (what
happened with the Internic) will only get worse! On top of that we will
create a trademark issue where the new names will "dilute" the mark created
for the Internet --exactly the opposite of the problem we're trying to
solve, right?

So here's my recommandation (and it applies to generic domain names only!):
that when opening new ITLD's companies or individuals who have registered a
generic domain name with the Internic, and established a presence thanks to
it, be given a first-chance to register a domain name where appropriate in
the newly created iTLDS where appropriate.

(To make the point: who gets to register yahoo.web? Anybody, as long as
they are the first one to request it?)

The second recommandation is one I believe everyone wil agreee with: that
no matter what happens, we find a way to "merge" the databases of all the
iTLD's so that one simple whois search will look in all registries. That
way, anybody can easily distinguish (with one search) between ibm.com and
ibm.biz (registered to the International Balloon Merchants in New Zealand,
in case you didn't know ;-)

Hope this helps.

JNF
jnf@france.com