Kathy,

I am sympathetic to your position. My concern is that any change now to the
program will embroil ICANN in mass litigation that will paralyze the
organization for a considerable period going forward. We briefly spoke in
Los Angeles about some recent legal hires by Amazon: some pretty impressive
hires. Can you convince me that my concerns are invalid? Might not a better
approach at this point be to pressure the applicants themselves to open up
the generic domains,  to make it socially unacceptable for large companies
to operate closed Tlds?

Ed



On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 8:26 PM, Kathy Kleiman <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

>  Quote from Jeff Neuman (VP Neustar) in Amsterdam last week:
> *Nearly all of those applying for Closed gTLDs would fail to qualify
> based on his reading of the Code of Conduct. **
> *
> Article show concern around the world for TLDs which are generic
> strings/words of an entire industry or business (DOCS, BOOK, SEARCH,
> ANTIVIRUS, WATCHES) being dominated and controlled by a single
> industry/business (and only one of many competitors).  that's being a
> registry to monoplize a word, not to offer registry services.
>
> -    The Hindu:  Beauty lies in the ‘domain’ of the highest bidder (Op-ed
> piece by Parminder Jeet Singh, Executive Director, IT for Change, in
> special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social
> Council (IGF attendee)), 12/24/2012,
> http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/beauty-lies-in-the-domain-of-the-highest-bidder/article3929612.ece
>
>
> -    Forbes: The Battle For The Cloud: Amazon Proposes 'Closed' Top-Level
> .CLOUD Domain, 11/6/2012,
> http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2012/11/06/the-battle-for-the-cloud-amazon-proposes-closed-top-level-cloud-domain/?partner=yahootix
>
> -    Techworld: Problems arise where one entity is seeking exclusive use
> of strings with broad applicability, 11/21/2012,
> http://news.techworld.com/networking/3412616/icann-issues-early-warnings-over-controversial-top-level-domains/
>
> I am deeply, deeply concerned!
> Best,
> Kathy
>
>
>  A quote from Karen Lentz (ICANN legal staff): "Under the current rules, there's nothing that would prevent the use of closed generics, which is focused on the issue of who can register a name."
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: NCSG-Discuss [mailto:[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf
> Of William Drake
> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 1:18 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [NCSG-Discuss] new-gtld-committee-not-sure-how-to-handle-
> closed-generic-applications
>
> surprise!
> http://www.thedomains.com/2013/02/05/icann-new-gtld-committee-not-
> sure-how-to-handle-closed-generic-applications/
>
>
>