Here we go again. Yes, the Red Cross is a worthy
organization recognized by international treaties, various national
laws and is an NCSG member. I might be persuaded that it deserves
'protection.' I might ask why it deserves more protection that other
worthy organizations - say my local public broadcasting affiliate, or UNESCO or
the associations for the blind or ... I might take a different position on
the IOC.
But I'll leave that debate to
others.
What concerns me is that once again, we're only worried
about the rights of an organization and its trademark. There remains
no protection for or consideration of individual domain name holders.
These large organizations can take care of themselves. They have the
resources to hire attorneys, take action against "bad actors", and defend
themselves against inappropriate complaints. I certainly understand their
wish to minimize their costs by preemptively adjusting the rules to protect
themselves.
Where is the similar discussion about protection for
individuals? Families? Clubs of a few people? We can't rely on
trademarks, because as non-commercial entities, we can't get a trademark.
Even if we could afford one, trademarks by definition must be used in
*commerce*.
So why can't we focus some energy on protecting the
rest of the membership? I suggested .TFZ (trademark free zone) a while
back, but although there were no alternatives offered, the consensus was that
anything that could be seen as weakening a trademark anywhere was was
unacceptable to the members holding trademarks. So we seem to be focused
on (even only responsive to) trademark issues - albeit for "non-commercial"
holders.
If all we're going to be is a niche in the trademark
wars, I don't see what NCSG is doing for me...
I'd like to hear
from the candidates - what ideas do you have for protecting the domain name
interests of the non-trademark holding members? How can we reconcile the
trademark holders' interests, which are recognized in law, with the interests of
those who can't obtain trademarks for their uses and have no law to fall back
on? Surely we can come up with administrative/policy solutions - or even
advocate for appropriate law?
I'd also like to see other members take an
interest in something other than how to tweak trademark-based rules... (And once
in a while, Whois privacy :-)
Timothe Litt
ACM Distinguished
Engineer
---------------------------------------------------------
This
communication may not represent the ACM or my employer's views,
if any, on
the matters discussed.
I would be curious to know what the NCSG membership thinks about this
proposal from GAC to give special privileges to the Red Cross and
International Olympic Committee in the top-level domain name space.
The GNSO Council will have to vote on this proposal soon, so some awareness
and input from the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group on the underlying issue
would be very helpful.
Thank you,
Robin Gross
Begin forwarded message:
Date: September 19, 2011
11:07:42 AM PDT
Subject:
[liaison6c] GAC advice:
1) possible UDRP 2) the IOC and Red Cross/Red
Crescent
FYI
Dear
Councillors,
Item 11 on
the GNSO Council agenda has been updated to read as
follows:
Item 11:
June 20 Board resolution on new gTLDs (15
minutes)
As part of
its resolutions on the new gTLD program, the ICANN Board passed a resolved
clause during its June 20 meeting in Singapore which contained the following
excerpt (Resolved 1.b):
Refer to
Board June 20 2011 motion on new gTLDs:
Incorporation of text concerning protection for specific requested
Red Cross and IOC names for the top level only during the initial application
round, until the GNSO and GAC develop policy advice based on the global public
interest.
On
September 18, the GAC sent a letter to the GNSO Council providing advice on
this topic:
GAC
advice:
The Council
should now discuss next steps and possible courses of action, starting with an
answer to the GAC.
11.1
Discussion
11.2 Next steps
Thank you
very much.
Kind
regards,
Glen
Glen
de Saint Géry
GNSO
Secretariat
IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 USA
p: +1-415-553-6261 f: +1-415-462-6451