RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] Harms Project Draft - Registrant Harms

["Kathy Kleiman" <kKleiman@xxxxxxx>]

Hi All,
I appreciate Jeff E. taking the first crack at this difficult issue. I am still 
reviewing his Summary of Harms, but wanted to note that one category seems to 
be missing - and "Registrant Harms/Consumer Protections." I realize that these 
issue may be implicit in other points, but I think we should definitely make 
them explicit.

As a first stab under "Registrant Harms/Consumer Protections" I would include:
-       Reduced choice, access and availability of domain names
-       Higher prices for domain names
-       Reduced access to registrars (who might operate in registrants' 
language, currency and customs)
-       No clear avenue for compliance enforcement by those who are concerned 
about violations

Best, 

Kathy Kleiman
Director of Policy
.ORG The Public Interest Registry
Direct: +1 703 889-5756  Mobile: +1 703 371-6846

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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx] On 
Behalf Of Jeff Eckhaus
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2010 2:02 PM
To: 'Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx'
Subject: [gnso-vi-feb10] Harms Project Draft

All,

I have made my first pass at drafting the harms that have been mentioned, 
discussed, presented, whispered since the beginning of the VI discussions a few 
years ago. I believe I have captured most of the harms but this list is not 
final or complete, just a draft and a start. I have used ICANN presentations, 
DAG comments, and other GNSO lists as well as one on one discussion.  I have 
copied some of the main sources of the harms list in the document itself and 
have the links if anybody cares to read the complete source documents.

I specifically did not mention market power or list harms that are exclusive to 
market power, but that was just a choice I made, if others want to add on to 
the list, please feel free, remember this is brainstorming mode.

The one harm I did specifically leave out is the strategy of auctions of 
premium names or the initial holding back of reserved names. The decision to 
hold back premium names and auctions is an action by the Registry will occur 
regardless of VI/CO and is not a consequence or result of VI/CO. You can read 
the recent TLD strategy put out by Afilias (RACK supporter)  here where they 
say this is an important strategy in launching your TLD. 
http://www.circleid.com/posts/new_tld_application_tip_launch_strategies/

If someone feels there is some way an auction can be influenced or altered due 
to VI then please add that to the list, since that could be a potential harm.

That being said, I would like to reiterate that this is brainstorming on the 
harms  and would like you to add to this list, if necessary, but please no 
deletions.  Once complete we can work on editing, ranking, sorting, predicting 
and deciding if these are harms at all, harms related to Vertical Integration, 
only in your own TLD and whatever other mechanisms we choose.

Have great weekend everyone


Jeff Eckhaus




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