I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but the .info rollout just has me in stitches.One
reason that ICANN denied a bunch of applications for top level domains is because
of concerns about feasibility and stability of the internet. So they brought
us .info.
ICANN has referred to alternate TLDs (e.g. New.net) as being a "cute
trick" and has criticized them at every turn. They claim that with an ICANN
backed domain, "its guaranteed its going to work", from "anytime, anyplace, ..."
Of
course, that doesn't apply to any of the registration process. Nor to the sites
themselves, I mean, at least afilias.info has been unreachable of and on in the last
few days due to network traffic.
They also have stated that there is "no need"
for more domains at this time. That's an interesting position considering that
nearly all desirable .info names were full before public registration commenced.
Of course, everyone with fraudulent trademarks got their requests fulfilled with
no problems. Will those people be fined or something for fraud? No.
I'm
not trying to plug New.net, but I don't like seeing them criticized when they are
responding to a genuine need for domain names that ICANN doesn't want to provide.
ICANN criticizes new.net because they require a plug-in to use, but then that's only
because ICANN won't allow their domains into the A root. It isn't a technical
limitation on new.net's part. And it isn't like they didn't apply through the
standard process; they and many other people paid their $50,000 application fee,
but were rejected.
Perhaps if we banned domain name speculation, all these problems
would go away. That'll never happen. Is it too much to ask to be able
to have a presence on the internet without having to fight with people over a name
they won't even use? .biz is a step in the right direction, but we need to
see more rules like that.
The world needs these new general domains. Look
at what we have now? .info, which has been mostly snapped up by domain name
speculators before it was ever open to the general public. Can anyone say that
we do not need more?
If this is the future of the internet, I am worried indeed.