:-) May expand onto a second page if necessary... ;-) Dan At 12:18 PM -0500 3/4/12, Alain Berranger wrote: >Thanks Andrew, > >This would make an excellent start to the one-pager briefing to the Board >suggested before by Dan! > >Alain > >On Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 8:08 PM, Andrew A. Adams ><<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >I strongly object to both the process that led to and the outcome of this >proposal. > >There was a very long period of discussion and the development of an aplicant >guidebook during which neither the IOC nor the ICRC, so far as I am aware, >engaged with ICANN processes. At the last minute before the new gTLD system >came into force these two organisations then put pressure on through the GAC >for special treatment. This has then been rushed through with too little >debate and too much pressure to cave in to pressure exerted through one of >the ICANN stakeholders. The resulting proposal is deeply flawed on both the >specifics and the general principle and opens up the name space to future >claims by a myriad of other organisations. > >The two organisations are completely different in nature and scope and the >limited discussions that have taken place appear to have treated them the >same, with no consideration of their differences. > >The case for the IOC is based upon an international treaty which only >protects their graphical trademark and not the words Olympic or Olympics. >Indeed, as we can see from the current second level names registered there >are huge numbers of commercial and non-commercial (e.g. geographic regions, >not least the region from where the name is drawn) who have currently >registered variants on the name and who hold trademarks on such names. >Privileging the IOC in any way in the gTLD name space is unjustified and >expansionary. > >The case for the ICRC is slightly better, given that the existing >international treaties do protect their names from actual use. I believe that >these treaties provide sufficient protection against any misuse of their name >and thus no added protection is needed. Any group which uses a name in such a >way as to create confusion amongst net users would be subject to severe >penalties and an application to have such domains blocked would easily be >accepted under existing rules. THis proposal is again expansionary in that >the current proposal restricts registration of names in languages not covered >by the existing international treaty and also includes the concept that names >not explicitly mentioend but "similar" should be protected. > >So, firstly, when the GNSO votes on this matter the two proposals should be >separated. Even if one accepts that case for the ICRC, the case for the IOC >is far, far weaker. > >Second, the GNSO votes should include more nuanced considerations of >restricting the scope of any protection offered, in particular paying close >attention to non-expansionary processes. > >Finally, if any protections are extended, these should be explicitly stated >as exceptions to the rules, apply only to the current round of gTLD expansion >and require any future protections to be argued for via ICANN's usual >bottom-up policy process and not forced on the community by one stakeholder >at the eleventh hour. Such limited and clearly exceptional protections must >be clearly constrained to prevent other organisations seeking to bypass the >bottom-up processes and force their own restrictions on others' >self-identification into the domain name system without proper balance being >considered in a measured and true consensus manner. > >In accepting these proposals, I believe the GNSO would do much more >significant harm to ICANN than would follow to anyone by allowing the >existing treaties to provide the rules and the existing mechanisms to follow >those rules. > > >-- >Professor Andrew A Adams > <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] >Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration, and >Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics >Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan ><http://www.a-cubed.info/>http://www.a-cubed.info/ > > > > >-- >Alain Berranger, B.Eng, MBA >Member, Board of Directors, >CECI, <http://www.ceci.ca/en/about-ceci/team/board-of-directors/>http://www.ceci.ca > >Executive-in-residence, Schulich School of Business, ><http://www.schulich.yorku.ca>www.schulich.yorku.ca >Trustee, Global Knowledge Partnership Foundation, ><http://www.gkpfoundation.org>www.gkpfoundation.org >NA representative, Chasquinet Foundation, ><http://www.chasquinet.org>www.chasquinet.org >interim Membership Committee Chair, NPOC, NCSG, >ICANN, <http://npoc.org/>http://npoc.org/ >O:+1 514 484 7824; M:+1 514 704 7824 >Skype: alain.berranger