ICANN should confine itself to technical and operational matters

[Walter Moczygemba <lafco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Name: Walter Moczygemba
Email: lafco@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject:
ICANN should confine itself to technical and operational matters

Comments:
As a long-time internet user with a deep interest in preserving the freedoms I 
have grown accustomed to online, I would like to add my voice to those already 
opposing the newly proposed policy regarding new generic top-level domains.

ICANN has no business regulating 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 an 
arbitrary, one-size-fits-all policy to censor the global Internet will not 
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 all 
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!

Thank you for your attention,
Walter Moczygemba