Re: Generic domain names

[Christopher Ambler <chris@iodesign.com>]

> Now, I read that some proposal are for putting those
> kind (generic) of domain names for sale to the highest bidder.

I don't know where you saw this proposal, but I can tell you right now that
.WEB will never do that. That is, IMHO, just *wrong*.

> 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?)

I cannot disagree with this more. Here are some problems:

1. How do we notify everyone with a .COM of this plan? Can you imagine the
expense? If by email, you have serious spam. If by postal mail, you have
serious COST. 500,000 .COM domains at 32 cents per stamp (and that's being
kind and assuming they're all in the US, which they are not) is not a small
chunk of change.

2. What about someone who has france.com (as you do) and someone ELSE
who has france.net? Who gets france.web? The one who registered in .COM
or .NET first? But then we're back to FCFS, aren't we?

3. What's the time frame? How long do we give people to do this? If too
long, you're going to hurt the new registry's revenue. If too short, you
give domain holders little time.

4. What is the use of new TLDs if they mirror .COM? Sure, when they opened
up 888, it mirrored 800 to some extent, but I think that was a BAD decision!

Who gets to register yahoo.web? Anyone who wants. If they are foolish enough
to risk a trademark infringement suit, they can be my guest. If Yahoo
objects, they will easilly win, IMHO, and when we're presented with a court
order, we will change the registration appropriately. We will NOT be the
judge in such a case, however - but now we're getting into policy that might
be out of the scope of this list.

FCFS is the only thing that I've seen that works. To mimic (Dave, was it?),
if FCFS isn't a good idea, I'm all ears for a better one. Anyone?

> 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 ;-)

This I like, and would gladly work towards as a goal.


--
Christopher Ambler
President, Image Online Design, Inc.