John Demco
CIRA IDN Consultation To Close Tuesday, December 13 – CIRA’s consultation on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) is scheduled to close on Tuesday, December 13. The consultation concerns the implementation of French character IDNs so that .ca domain names can be written correctly in French.
U.S. Government Officials Offer Divergent Views on New gTLD Program – Two senior U.S. government officials have expressed divergent views on ICANN’s new gTLD program.
In a wide-ranging speech given on December 8, the same day as a
U.S. Senate committee hearing on ICANN’s new gTLD program, Lawrence Strickling
of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) expressed strong support for the ICANN
multistakeholder process while expressing sensitivity to concerns being raised
about the introduction of new gTLDs. Here is an excerpt from the prepared text
of his speech:
[…] we are now seeing parties that did not like the outcome of that
multistakeholder process trying to collaterally attack the outcome and seek
unilateral action by the U.S. government to overturn or delay the product of a
six-year multistakeholder process that engaged folks from all over the world.
The multistakeholder process does not guarantee that everyone will be
satisfied with the outcome. But it is critical to preserving the model of
Internet governance that has been so successful to date that all parties
respect and work through the process and accept the outcome once a decision is
reached. When parties ask us to overturn the outcomes of these processes, no
matter how well-intentioned the request, they are providing “ammunition” to
other countries who attempt to justify their unilateral actions to deny their
citizens the free flow of information on the Internet. This we will not do.
There is too much at stake here.But we are sensitive to the concerns being raised by some companies about the
introduction of new gTLDs. Today, Chairman Rockefeller held an important
oversight hearing in the Senate Commerce Committee on the subject of how ICANN
will expand top level domains. We agree with the Chairman’s concerns over how
this program will be implemented and its potential negative effect if not
implemented properly. We will closely monitor the execution of the program and
are committed to working with stakeholders, including U.S. industry, to
mitigate any unintended consequences.
However, during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on antitrust enforcement held on December 7, Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz said, “At the Commission, we are very, very concerned that this rollout of new gTLDs has the potential to be a disaster for consumers and for businesses.” Liebowitz’s remarks on new gTLDs begin at approximately 47:25 into the archived video webcast.
Picks To Click
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The archived webcast and statements of the December 8 U.S. Senate committee
hearing on new gTLDs. - The Communications and Technology subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “ICANN’s Top-Level Domain Name Program”, on Wednesday, December 14 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
- LF, LLC wins a dispute over lowesdisposal.ca.
Timeline
- Tue, Dec 13: CIRA IDN consultation closes
- Thu, Jan 12 – Thu, Apr 12: applications for new gTLDs being accepted
- Sun, Jan 15: .com, .net registry fees increase
- Sun, Mar 11 – Fri, Mar 16: ICANN meetings in San Jose, Costa Rica