Opposition to Employ Media Request to Change sTLD Charter

[Carl Savino <Carl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

July 15, 2010

Peter Dengate Thrush, Chairman

Members of the Board of Directors
International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6601
USA

_RE: Opposition to Employ Media Request to Change sTLD Charter_

Dear Chairman Dengate Thrush and Members of the Board:

CorporateGray.com is a military-niche employment website connecting 
those who have served in our Armed Forces with employers nationwide. I 
am writing on behalf of CorporateGray.com to urge you to reject Employ 
Media's request for authority to permit second level registration of 
strings that do not correspond to an employer's name in the .jobs 
sponsored top level domain. CorporateGray.com opposes the unilateral 
expansion of the .jobs charter to encompass regional and 
industry-specific second-level registrations.
Under the terms of ICANN's request for proposals for new sTLDs dated 15 
December 2003 (the "sTLD RFP"), applicants -- including Employ Media - 
were required to demonstrate that the proposed sTLD addresses the needs 
and interests of a clearly defined community (the Sponsored TLD 
Community). In addition, applicants were required to demonstrate that 
the policy-formulation procedures for the sTLD operate primarily in the 
interests of the Sponsored TLD Community, and that the proposed sTLD 
enjoys broad based support of the Sponsored TLD Community.[1] <#_ftn1>
In its application, Employ Media proposed to serve the needs of human 
resources professionals responsible for human resources management in 
the corporate setting, and pledged to maintain .jobs as "a name space 
for employers."[2] <#_ftn2> The limited nature of the .jobs Sponsored 
Community is reflected by the applicant's commitment to limit 
registrations to the legal name of an employer and/or a name or 
abbreviation by which the employer is commonly known. According to the 
sTLD Application, "due to restrictions set forth in this proposal, /a 
registration in the .jobs sTLD will be associated with an employer,/"[3] 
<#_ftn3> and Employ Media committed to prohibit registration of 
occupational and industry, and geographic identifiers."[4] <#_ftn4> The 
bottom line is that as proposed by Employ Media and approved by ICANN, 
the .jobs sTLD is intended to serve HR professionals and recruiting 
firms representing /direct employers only, in each case by using the 
legal name of such employers as a registration at the second level./
That community does not include online employment services providers 
like CorporateGray.com nor did Employ Media demonstrate the support of 
online employment services providers in connection with the .jobs sTLD 
Application.
Employ Media's current request for authority to permit the 
"registration, use, and promotions of domains that are not the company 
names of the registrant"[5] <#_ftn5> would fundamentally alter the 
Sponsored Community for the .jobs sTLD and eliminate its pledge not to 
create second level registrations of regional and industry-specific job 
boards. Employ Media did not attempt to demonstrate the support of 
online employment services providers and their vendors, and in fact went 
out of its way to avoid contacting job board operators about the 
proposed expansion.[6] <#_ftn6> This is not surprising, given that 
Employ Media intends to add second level registrations that will be 
confusingly similar to established job boards.
As a material change to the .jobs Registry Agreement, this request must 
be reviewed by the ICANN Board based on applicable criteria from the 
sTLD RFP. Under those criteria, the request should be rejected as an 
attempt to "route around" the sponsorship eligibility requirements in 
the sTLD RFP and the protections built into the .jobs Registry Agreement 
to prevent "abusive registration activities and other activities that 
affect the legal rights of others."[7] <#_ftn7> Approval of the .jobs 
Phased Allocation Program would threaten the integrity of the RSEP 
process and undermine the credibility of ICANN's commitments in 
connection with the introduction of new top level domains in general
Sincerely,

Carl Savino

President, Competitive Edge Services Inc.

Corporate Gray Books / Job Fairs / Online


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[1] <#_ftnref1> 
*http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/new-stld-rfp/new-stld-application-parta-15dec03.htm*
**[2]** <#_ftnref2>* sTLD Applicant responses to request for further 
information, at page 48 of 177 
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/PostAppC.pdf*
**[3]** <#_ftnref3>* Id. *

**[4]** <#_ftnref4>* Id. *

**[5]** <#_ftnref5>* 
http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/jobs-proposal-09jun10-en.pdf 
(hereinafter, Employ Media RSEP Request")*
**[6]** <#_ftnref6>* Id. *

**[7]** <#_ftnref7>* .jobs Registry Agreement, Appendix S Part VII: 
Other Provisions (2. "Community Value Criteria")*