[Random-bits] NCC Resolution on new TLDs

[James Love]

This is one of five resolutions passed by ICANN's DNSO Non-Commercial
constituency.  Jamie

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Noncommercial Constituency Resolution in Response to ICANN Staff Notice
of June 13, 2000, regarding "Introduction of New Top-Level Domains"


Introduction: 

On June 13, 2000, the ICANN staff issued a notice asking for input on
the Introduction of New Top-Level Domains.  This resolution is a
response by the Noncommercial Constituency to certain high level
concerns raised by the notice and its proposed policies for new gTLDs.

I. Procedural Objections

To meet its goal of introducing new gTLDs as quickly as possible, it is
time for the ICANN staff to propose specific rules, in a notice of
proposed rulemaking, and allow the noncommercial community and all other
ICANN communities to comment upon it.  The NCC requests that such
specific rules be issued subject to a reasonable public notice to allow
review and input about concrete and specific rules.

II. The Need for New gTLDs to be Opened by ICANN is Real and Substantial

The limited number of general Top Level Domains creates an artificial scarcity of domain names for noncommercial, commercial and individual use and limits and threatens the
robustness and activity of the Internet.   

Domain names are conduits for posting and finding noncommercial and
commercial speech.  The current gTLD structure imposes an artificial
scarcity at the expense of noncommercial speech.  There is inadequate
space in the current TLD structure to put the domain names of
individuals, families, clans, political organizations, religious groups,
labor groups, libraries, consumer groups, environmental groups, free
speech and open communication groups, professional associations and
philanthropic institutions.  The need by these organizations and
individuals is real and substantial; the speech that these organization
and individuals provide to their communities and to the Internet is
tremendously valuable. It is up to ICANN to act now.

III.  New gTLDs Must Be Adopted Without Excessive Intellectual Property
Regimes - Either Public or Private

A.  ICANN Should Not Regulate Intellectual Property Rights;  It has
neither the mandate nor the expertise to do so.

ICANN should not introduce restrictions on the registration of new TLDs
based on their connection with famous marks because ICANN does not have
the Authority to regulate property rights.  The NCC submits that
policy-making over intellectual property is inappropriate for ICANN.

ICANN was required by the U.S. Govt. White Paper to ask WIPO to convene
an international process to develop a set of recommendations for
trademark/domain name dispute resolutions. However, ICANN is an
institution for technical coordination of the Internet, not property
rights policy-making. ICANN has already created Uniform Dispute
Resolution Process (UDRP) to resolve trademark disputes, and it should
not expand its role in restricting the use of trademarks in domain
names. Additional regulation of property rights, such as famous mark
restrictions or other forms of trademark protection in domain names -
either in an express ICANN rule or in any private registry rules
approved by ICANN -- risks dragging ICANN into public policy-making in
an area where it has neither competence nor a mandate. Institutions with
relevant authority already exist for such matters.

The NCC notes the DNSO Working Group B Report (17 April 2000), which
reports the consensus view that: "There does not appear to be the need
for the creation of a universally famous marks list at this point in
time."

B.  The NCC Supports Use of Corporate and Product Names in Connection
with Expressions of Concern and Criticism.

The NCC adds that it supports the use of a company, product or service
name in connection with a TLD or its domain names that is designed to
facilitate organization of consumers or workers for comment, concern and
criticism. We call on the appropriate institutions - legal authorities
with jurisdiction over trademark disputes -- to permit this use of
names.

We call on ICANN not to create policies that would limit the use of
company, product or service names by domain name holders seeking to use
them in for legitimate and protected expressions of concern and
criticism.

There should be an adequate number of TLDs and diversity of registries
to satisfy the needs of the Internet community by region, language,
culture, and point of view.

IV.  ICANN Should Make Clear Its Intention To Continue the Development
of New gTLDs in the Near Future.
    
The Current Debate over new gTLDs is one based largely in developed
countries. However, with the rapid development of other regions, the
need for new gTLDs and their domain names is growing in developing
countries in a similar manner to that of developed countries, with a
slight time delay.  Rather than indicating its willingness to pursue the
corporate agenda of extremely slow growth of gTLDs, the NCC resolves
that ICANN should adopt a schedule of rapid and substantial expansion of
new gTLDs today to meet the existing need.  The NCC further resolves
that ICANN should also formally commit itself to the sustained and
substantial expansion of new gTLDs in the future so that the developing
countries will be able to fulfill their needs for new gTLDs as these
needs arise.

There should be a recognition that as new multilingual character sets
become available for the DNS, there should be adequate resources for
TLDs to satisfy the needs of the new domain space.

The NCC recommends that ICANN adopts the DNSO Working Group C
recommendation that new gTLDs be followed by an evaluation period. This
evaluation period should include a study of the impact of new gTLDs on
developing countries, to ensure that the benefits of new gTLDs are not
gained by the developed countries alone.


V.  Need for Noncommercial and Civil Society gTLDs Must Be A Paramount
Concern In This First Round of Openings

ICANN should consult with the NCC as a part of the efforts to create new
gTLDs.
 
The NCC submits that granting noncommercial gTLDs today will begin to
address the critical need for new gTLDs discussed in Section II above,
and complement existing domains that are increasingly oriented towards
business. Existing gTLDs are predominantly utilized by commercial
entities (most notably ".com" but increasingly ".org" and ".net.")
Noncommercial gTLDs would serve the "third sector" of private,
non-commercial institutions.

A "noncommercial or civil society gTLD" model should include generic
gTLDs and/or chartered gTLDs to cover a range of activities and
interests within the noncommercial arena.

The specific character strings of the TLDs that the NCC hereby proposes
are not addressed here.  These proposals should come from the
communities themselves, working with registries who will submit
proposals to ICANN.  Further, just as in other avenues of communication,
the NCC resolves that noncommercial and civil society groups must be
free to continue using domains in other TLDs as appropriate, as they do
now.