unqualified domains, was ICANN to allow commercial gTLDs

[marka at isc.org (Mark Andrews)]

In message <5A6D953473350C4B9995546AFE9939EE0D633D5A at RWC-EX1.corp.seven.com>, G
eorge Bonser writes:
> > The failure rate isn't going to be high enough for natural selection
> > to take effect.  Remember the protocols we use were designed to
> > work back when there was only a single flat namespace.  Simple
> > hostnames will appear to work fine for 99.999% of people.  It's
> > just when you get namespace collisions that there will be problems.
> 
> I would guess that most of these are going to be purchased simply to
> prevent someone else from getting them

I would agree with this part.

> and that most of them will never
> actually be placed into production.

But not with this part.

>  So it will basically just be a cash
> cow for ICANN while people pay their $185K/pop "application fee" to snap
> up a piece of real estate they don't want anyone else to have.

Adding gtlds and opening up the root to brands effectively requires
TM holders to register/bid to protect their TM rights.  Now $10 or
so is not a lot for a TM.gtld and isn't worth the court costs but
$185K/pop is a lot and sooner or later a TM holder will sue ICANN
because they don't want to have to pay $185K to protect their TM
and it will be interesting to see the results.  It will be even
more interesting if ICANN looses and has to roll back brand delegations
it has made.

Mark
-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: marka at isc.org