You'll notice the "Protect Your Brand", in the center. It's not as big as the criticism below make it to be but it's there. Would it be relevant and/or feasible to 'regulate' (read encourage/constrain ==> through types of means that i will leave open to discussion) the way registrar can market those new TLD? First, it doesn't look good. Second, while i don't think anybody (except perhaps established registrars) who are in favor of gTLD expansion have a clear view of what the emergent system of naming and names will or should be, i am pretty sure no-one so disposed would care to advocate that this system should establish itself mainly as a protection scheme. Is forcing advertising to depart with the protection rhetoric a step forward? Is it feasible? Just some thoughts. Nicolas -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [ NNSquad ] "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network Solutions Home Page Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 12:42:23 -0700 From: Lauren Weinstein <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network Solutions Home Page This "in your face" promotion currently running on the Network Solutions home page clearly illustrates how the current top-level domains (gTLD) expansion plan is akin to a traditional "Sign up now or something bad might, uh, happen to you, buddy!" protection racket. http://j.mp/ofrzyv (Lauren's Blog - Screen capture from networksolutions.com) As you can see, there is no concept of community service, social responsibility, or even real "value-added" benefits. The promotion for two TLDs is explicitly about *protection* -- as in protecting yourself from someone else grabbing those domains and making you look bad, confusing your customers, and worse -- whether you have any real interest in those TLDs or not. And this is *only the beginning*, my friends. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([log in to unmask]):http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility:http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad:http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance:http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum:http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog:http://lauren.vortex.com Google+:http://vortex.com/g+lauren Twitter:https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com