Thursday, July 10, 2008

Legal update: Domain name gold rush on the horizon

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for the internet domain name system, has recently approved draft proposals that would see the biggest ever expansion of domain name choice.

Under the draft proposals anyone would be allowed to apply for a generic top level domain (gTLD), resulting in an unlimited number of gTLDs. Currently, there are a limited number of gTLDs, including .com, .net and .gov (and .com.au, .net.au and .gov.au in Australia), which are strictly controlled by ICANN and each country’s internet regulatory authority (for example, .au Domain Administration for .au domain names). ICANN has introduced several new gTLDs, such as .biz, .travel and .asia, but the draft proposals could allow gTLDs such as .ebay and .yahoo

(more)... http://www.deacons.com.au/legal-services/technology-media-telecommunications/legal-updates/legal-update.cfm?objid=6512

I cant work out if I think this is a good thing or a bad thing.

I definitely think that we need non latin characters - this was just silly. I also think that .XXX should have been implemented years ago (but not restricting adult to just this domain - that would be a restriction of trade).

My question is how will people remember of all the domains? it's almost like reason TLDs are encouraging this is because if you want to prevent cybersquatting you'll need to buy more domains :)


Cheers,
Dean

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