1) Life is not perfect. There is no perfect solution. Rid yourself of this
expectation.2) New TLD's will not solve all problems, nor will they confuse all
Internet users and destroy the Internet. Additional TLD's will give millions
the opportunity the register more appealing domains than they have now.
3) (2)
somewhat assumes the Sunrise Period won't be implemented. The sunrise period
is an inane idea ridiculously biased towards corporate America for many reasons.
One is that ownership of a domain can only damage the most famous trademarks in the
minds of a few people. Not only do very few domains affect very few trademarks, the
relationship between the two is tenuous at best. Current guidelines and legal precedent
are now sufficient enough that the courts and/or arbitration can handle most trademark
cases reasonably .. although, admittedly, there are still many ill-wrought
cases brought by corporations like VW's ridiculous suit. In sum, the courts can handle
trademark disputes, it CANNOT be reasonably built into the domain name system.
4)Using
the Domain Name System to categorize or classify segments of the Internet is no longer
a viable idea. Nice in theory, but we already have 15 million unclassified domains
registered and enforcement would be very difficult to successfully execute, anyway.
There are literally thousands of possible classifications, not just a few. That's
why we have search engines and directories DNS is should NOT only NOT be a
trademark protecting system, it should NOT be a yellow pages because it CAN'T be.
"Don't think about what is ideal in THEORY, think about what can be best implemented
in REALITY."
5) Categorized TLD's like .med, .per, .shop definitely have some value,
just don't think they will be so reliable that one can create a classification system
based upon them. The most feasible categorized tld's that could apply to millions
would be .per for personal web sites, and possibly .reg (or whatever) for trademarks.
Other than this, don't expect ICANN to go too far down this classification road.
Enforcement is difficult and the VALUE of most categorical TLD's will be LOW, if
implemented. Only a few pseudo-classifying TLD's .shop and .biz will really be popular,
and even then, everyone will be registering one regardless of appropriateness, because
EVERYONE will be selling stuff over the Net someday, at least that's the way people
think.
6) Due the dynamics addressed above, ICANN has no choice but to come out
with TLD's along the lines of what was suggested 4 years ago. They can't be too narrow
because no one will register them.
Expect .shop., .biz, .web, and .per
7) If
they come out with only one, it should DEFINITELY be .WEB. It is meaningful, general,
does not imply a trademark, and does not have a stigma like .NET, (which incidentally,
were it not for convention, would be a far more appealing and meaningful name than
.com)
8) ICANN's stance of focusing on NOT destabilizing the Internet is mostly
a pretense. The Internet can handle thousands of new TLD's with ease. Therefore,
it must be an excuse to either justify their slow progress and/or justify the slow
roll-out of new TLD's to satisfy corporate interests who have ONE primary goal. PROTECT
THEIR BRANDS AND THEIR PROFITS. If there is a landrush, expect a registrar server
to not be available because it is either too busy or has crashed. This is a
far cry from destabilizing the Internet. It will simply be like Amazon going down.
8)
Next week I address "Ozone Depletion" and "Gary Coleman's career".
The former
I solve easily.