Opposition to Employ Media Request to Change sTLD Charter

["Alice Scott" <ascott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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:

The Virginia Manufacturers Association (VMA) has represented members of
industry in the Commonwealth of Virginia since 1922.  In 2009, the VMA
in partnership with the Virginia Biotechnology Association (VaBIO)
launched the Advanced Technology Career Center, an online job board
which was developed by industry to specifically connect a skilled set of
employment seekers to employers with specialized advanced technology
jobs found at www.advancedtechnologyjobs.com.    


I am writing on behalf of the VMA and www.advancedtechnologyjobs.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.  The VMA, which would be
directly and adversely affected, opposes the unilateral expansion of the
.jobs charter to encompass regional and industry-specific second-level
registrations as an extremely anti-competitive practice.  We urge you to
reject such a negative precedent-setting proposal.

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] 

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]  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] and Employ Media committed
to prohibit registration of occupational and industry, and geographic
identifiers."[4]  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 the VMA and www.advancedtechnologyjobs.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] 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]  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]  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,

Alice B. Scott

Director of Marketing & Member Services

Virginia Manufacturers Association

____________________

[1] 
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/new-stld-rfp/new-stld-application-parta-15d
ec03.htm
<http://www.mmsend2.com/ls.cfm?r=201556755&sid=10099808&m=1059179&u=Boxw
ood&s=http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/new-stld-rfp/new-stld-application-par
ta-15dec03.htm>  
2 sTLD Applicant responses to request for further information, at page
48 of 177 http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/PostAppC.pdf
<http://www.mmsend2.com/ls.cfm?r=201556755&sid=10099809&m=1059179&u=Boxw
ood&s=http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/stld-apps-19mar04/PostAppC.pdf>  
3 Id. 
4 Id. 
5 http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/jobs-proposal-09jun10-en.pdf
<http://www.mmsend2.com/ls.cfm?r=201556755&sid=10099810&m=1059179&u=Boxw
ood&s=http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/jobs-proposal-09jun10-en.p
df>  (hereinafter, Employ Media RSEP Request")
6 Id.
7 .jobs Registry Agreement, Appendix S Part VII: Other Provisions (2.
"Community Value Criteria").

 

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