[IP] New Frontiers in TLD Business Models!

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Seth Finkelstein [sethf@sethf.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 2:16 PM
To: David Farber; ip
Cc: lauren@vortex.com
Subject: New Frontiers in TLD Business Models!

[For IP, if worthy]
> From: Lauren Weinstein
> While there do appear to be attendees at the Paris meeting who are
> concerned broadly about DNS stability under the new ICANN plan, the
> vast bulk of attendees see the upcoming gTLD gold rush as yet
> another way to line their pockets with greenbacks and euros ...

        A _Guardian_ column I wrote about this last year is relevant:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/23/guardianweeklytechnologysection.internet

"The domain name system is full of rent-seekers, speculators, squatters and various scammers."

        I've seen some of the shenanigans that go on. We've about to
be inundated with clever schemes based on exploiting top-level domains.

        Stuff like "dot-greed" is too obvious. Personally, I want
".cmo", for typo-squatting, I mean, Chief Medical Officers. And also
".cim", for more typo-squatting, I mean, the Common Information Model.

        If we don't get dot-ex-ex-ex, to sell to defensive
registrations to trademark owners, I mean, for sex sites, how about
".hate", for a similar idea? That is, the new TLD ".hate" would be
said to be for self-described hate-sites to self-label. But you,
Mr/Ms Trademark Owner, can buy a pre-emptive registration for a
special rate.

        I'm sure there's a wide ranger of ingenuity that will be
applied, given the lucrative mix of speculation, typo traffic,
certification fees, and trademark issues. ICANN has just bought
itself years and years of litigation headaches.

--
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php



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