Longer comment period and reply period request

[Paul Tattersfield <gpmgroup@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Dr. Crocker,

We are concerned ICANN may be reverting to pre Affirmation of
Commitments behaviour. When similar economic competition issues on
brand and generic gTLDs were discussed in 2009 – 2010, prior to the
launching of the new gTLD process, ICANN never even summarized many
stakeholder comments, effectively buried comments by removing external
links to the comment forums and summarized other comments AFTER a
proposed Board vote!

This current comment period is very short for such an important issue
and there doesn’t seem to be any intention to provide a public reply
period.

This is a complex area which will have enormous implications for the
future direction of the internet and it is important that all
stakeholders have the opportunity to consider these issues fully.

This is not a simple permit/don’t permit competition issue. Awarding a
perpetual, generic gTLD in any industry to an applicant based in, or
controlled by someone in the same industry, is game changing compared
with the current system which allows numerous individual entities to
compete equitably in the second level of open gTLDs and ccTLDs.

Please will you extend the comment period and please will you provide
for a subsequent reply period.

Yours sincerely,


Paul Tattersfield
http://www.gpmgroup.com   blog http://gpmgroup.info