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Since my site is listed in that list of supporters (and I believe I did in fact sign
some online petition on the subject at some point), I wish to clarify that I don't
necessarily believe that any attempt to restrict .org to nonprofits and .net to network
providers is necessarily some sort of "evil conspiracy". In fact, I agree in
principle with the concept that those domain endings were intended for particular
purposes and that it would be better for the namespace as a whole if they were used
in a meaningful way instead of as meaningless free-for-alls. However, I don't
see it as feasible or desirable to impose new restrictions in an ex-post-facto way
by force. While it might have been better if Network Solutions had policed
the domain endings (including .com, which is heavily abused by noncommercial entities
regstering in it) from the start, adding mandatory restrictions later isn't desirable
or fair; instead, I favor encouraging people to learn the meanings of the TLDs and
pick appropriate addresses accordingly, but not be forced out of names they registered
in good faith (even if not quite within the original intended meanings of the endings). There's
also the issue that .org was intended originally as a "miscellaneous" ending for
all sorts of entities that didn't fit in the other categories. This includes,
but is not limited to, officially accredited nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations.
Any definition of .org that requires government accreditation as a nonprofit would
go beyond the original charter of the TLDs, and would exclude such things as hobby
and fan sites that are not commercial (and hence don't really belong in .com), so
many site owners registered .org names for them in good faith. Thus, I oppose mandatory
limitations on .org being imposed, but don't necessarily go along with conspiracy-theory
polemics on the subject, and I don't oppose the registries and registrars making
an effort, in a noncoercive way, to encourage judicious selection of what TLD to
register under, based on the nature of your intended use, rather than just promoting
.com, .org, and .net as undifferentiated free-for-alls.
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