ICANN should not try to censor freedom of expression
Name: Antony Schofield Email: tonyscho@xxxxxxxxx Subject: ICANN should not try to censor freedom of expression Comments: ICANN is seriously threatening to overstep the boundaries of its mandate. KEEP THE CORE NEUTRAL! ICANN should not try to regulate morality and public order on the Internet. But the proposed policy for approving new gTLDs threatens to do just that. There is no global consensus on these cultural issues, and applying a one-size-fits-all policy to censor the global Internet cannot work. Also, trademark law doesn't match the way Internet domains are used, and the proposed policy would apply trademark law in ways that are completely unprecedented in any national law or international treaty. This is completely inappropriate, and is likely to be illegal in many cases. The proposed challenge process allows too much subjective uncertainty in what should be a completely objective, transparent and well-defined application procedure. It requires ICANN to judge cases for which it has no established institutional capacity, and sets up a completely spurious legal jurisdiction without any accountable political authority. It would also allow wealthier and more powerful gTLD applicants to hijack the application process, suppress competition and innovation, and generally establish more firmly entrenched gatekeeper power in the market for gTLDs. These problems are too important to let the proposed policy be approved without fixing them. Please protect freedom of expression and innovation by removing non-technical and non-operational criteria from all ICANN policies. Keep the Internet open and nondiscriminatory. Keep the core neutral! |