RE: [gtld-council] The focus of GNSO Council involvement in IDN

[Mawaki Chango <ki_chango@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, 
commenting below...

--- Bret Fausett <bfausett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> In addition to all the issues Cary noted, I would like to add
> another layer
> of complexity. The Council, as well as the other bodies of ICANN
> more
> generally, should be keenly aware of the competition aspects of
> aliasing
> versus alternative proposals for the implementation of IDNs. 
> 
> One possible path for IDNs would allow the incumbent registries to
> leverage
> their existing contractual relationships as administrators of ascii
> character TLDs to become the sole providers of IDN versions of the
> existing
> gTLDs. On this path, the incumbents would gain the right to operate
> IDN
> gTLDs without a bidding and award process. Take all of the
> competition
> issues we've been debating with the award of .COM and multiply them
> across
> the language space of the entire world. 

I must say I don't really see what would be the rationale for this
path: is it technical (obviously not), is it commercial, is it
political, is it cultural? I don't seem to feel comfortable with that
kind of path dependency that is not even necessary, or requested by
any objective constraint.

> 
> Another possible path is to understand that each IDN version of
> .COM, .NET.
> .ORG, .INFO, .MUSEUM, .AERO, .COOP, .PRO, etc. is a new TLD,
> subject to a
> new award and bidding process. I have no doubt that our capable and
> talented
> friends in the registry constituency will win their fair share of
> these
> bids. In the process of bidding, however, costs will come down. We
> may
> finally see meaningful competition between registries. We also may
> find that
> a company from outside the United States may be an excellent
> candidate to
> manage a Chinese, Malay or Hindi language TLD. 

This more open option (or more open to competion, if you will,
wishing good luck to our "friends" :) in the incumbent registries)
seems to me the best way to go, instead of locking a new DNS space
into the old one and tightening up the entry for new players.
Especially now that we all know that the existing gtld contracts bear
the seeds (provisions) for their renewal virtually ad vitam
aeternam*, not matter newly developed policies.

Mawaki
(*) My dictionary tells me that the latin "ad vitam aeternam" is
translated in English by "till kingdom come" - hope it makes sens.

> 
> This is something to keep in mind as the issue moves forward.
> 
>           -- Bret
>