.: ICANN Creating a Monopoly in Domain Names
Category:Home / Internet / Domain Names
When the Internet was very young, all you had to do to get a domain name was call a man named Jon Postel, and ask for it. Things have changed greatly with the popularity of the Internet. Now the competition for a good, short, generic domain name is fierce. If you want a domain name in the popular .com namespace, you have to settle for a long, sometimes confusing, domain name.
ICANN has been using a process of “rounds” to introduce new tlds. When they do create these new tlds, they are generic in nature, like .info or .biz. This creates trademark conflicts. Many companies hold the same word as a trademark, such as Apple Records and Apple Computers. Both are legal trademarks. Both have the legal right to use the word apple to sell their respective products and services.
So which one has the legal rights to apple.com or apple.biz? What if I start a company tomorrow called Apple Printing Services and get a trademark on the word apple to sell printing services? Do I not then have equal rights to use apple.com or apple.net as my domain name?
If ICANN would open the TLD market, so that any company with the technical expertise and the financial capability, could start a new TLD, we would have more option like apple.computer, apple.music, apple.printer. TLDs like .lyr, .atty, .cpa, would crop up. This would help eliminate trademark conflicts.
First come, first serve, in the demand for domain names was the method used and seemed fair when namespace was less congested. Now, if we are going to insure that future generations of people, who are not even on the Internet yet, or who have not even started their business yet, will have the opportunity to get domain names they want, we must create more tlds. ICANN claims there is no demand for new TLDS.
I disagree. Demand is far from being met. It is not fair business practice to have few TLDs where a few companies/people get short one word domain names while the rest must settle for two and in most cases three word domain names. By limiting space with few TLDs, ICANN makes the decision that businesses that were in existence at a certain point in time shall have an advantage over any business created at a later time.
As a city grows, more streets get paved and more buildings get built allowing for more businesses to get good locations, more corner lots if you will. As name space expands ICANN wants businesses to continue to build upward and not outward. They leave new businesses the equivalent of existing on the third and fourth levels Vs having a ground-floor storefront.
Cities grow outward to allow for more development. TLD space needs to grow outward to meet the same demand. Cities that stifle development and that are not business-friendly find their economy in ruin before too long. Cities that do their best to offer more development opportunities to businesses i.e. corner lots, breaks in certain costs, etc., prosper.
It would be uncommon for a city to tell a new business, “nope can build on that lot, you have to build onto existing buildings above your competitors, so that they have the ground floor and your customers must walk past your competitors to get to where you are.” That is the analogy. If you own design.com already, I must get something like webdesign.com (a 2nd floor location), the next business must get something like websitedesign.com, (3rd floor), the next few businesses can share the 4th floor with greatwebsitedesign.com, websitedesignplanet.com, etc. Others will get the 5th floor with even longer names as new businesses come to the web.
You might say well they only need their business name for their website and that should be easy to get. I would answer that many businesses have the same name and in addition to that, generic keywords in domain names are an advantage to only having your business name as a domain name. People are not searching the web for you, but they do search for what service or product you sell.
ICANN is currently forcing an unfair disadvantage to new business owners and to people new to the web by not allowing them to get good, short domain names for their personal or business use. Not allowing new tlds to be created is an unfair business practice and a restraint to free trade. It is also anti-free enterprise because they are telling me I cannot go into the domain name selling business and that only a few businesses they have selected can do so. They may also be in violation of laws written to avoid monopolies.
Article keywords: ICANN, DNSO, GNSO, IANA, Domain, Business, website, name, internet, net, web, tld, namespace, com, biz, net, aero, info, trademark, tm, WIPO, conflict, arbitration, monopoly, anti-trust, government, affiliate, website, design
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Chris McElroy has been an advocate for domain name owners and individual users of the Internet since 1995. He participates in working groups, mailing lists, and forums, that deal with issues regarding domain names, IP Number allocation, and the DNS. His current project at www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com (a 3rd floor location, when what I want is the opportunity to have a location on the ground floor, in a new neighborhood), deals with website promotion and domain names.
.: New Domain Names Articles
1). How Do I Change My Domain Name
The fact is that there really are some times that you need to change your domain name. Changing domain names is not in fact a rare situation, but is widely common today. Many people are changing domain names for all kinds of reasons, and along with that, many people are also encountering problems.
2). Warning! Your Website Domain Can Be Taken
Your domain name can get hijacked and a price quoted back to you on how much it will cost to get it back. There is some easy measures that will stop this.
3). International Domain Names with Internet Explorer 7
IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Name, also known as multilingual domain names. It allows you the possibility to use more characters in domains names, besides letters and numbers. It uses characters available in other alphabets and other languages.
4). Name Your Business Not to Dos
Whether you are naming your baby or your new business you can make a powerful positive impact if you do it correctly
5). You Need Your Own Domain Name...
A unique domain name. That's one of the first and most important steps that a new home business website builders must consider. All too often, you see websites created with a free host with a domain name that includes the free host company's business name. If you are planning to market your website and internet business as a professional entity, then you really should buy your own domain name.
6). Make Profit from Buying and Selling Domain Names
The Internet domain market has become more and more lucrative in the past few years. Almost all companies as well as many individual people these days have websites, and most would prefer their websites to be immediately recognizable. Domain names tell people what websites are about, and this can be a big plus when someone is doing a search and looking for something specific.
7). The Public Domain: Ten Things You May Not Know About It
There's a little known world of free-to-claim products with unlimited profit potential, an Aladdin’s Cave of ready-made products for you to locate in minutes, re-package in hours, and sell as your own. It’s called ‘The Public Domain’ and it means you can legally copy and sell other people’s books, maps, films, and more, with no ongoing fees or royalties of any kind to pay … EVER! Here are ten more things you may not know about the public domain ….
.: Top Domain Names Articles
1). Mom discovered 16 year old son with $70,000 earned from Adsense.
This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Adsense. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about Adsense.
If your Adsense facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don't let important Adsense information slip by you.
Who Else Wants To Make Money With Adsense?
Fact number 1: Kids in high school are making thousands of dollars every month with Adsense.
2). Choosing a Domain Name for Your Domain Hosting
Your domain hosting name is not something to be chosen lightly. Your domain hosting name is your front line in your branding campaign for your online business (or your offline business’s online presence). Careful consideration needs to go into choosing just the right domain hosting name to represent your business. The following are some key points to consider:
The Right Extension for the Right Site
Each type of site you want domain hosting for may serve a different market.
3). The Value of Finance and Debt Related Domain Names
Why domain names can be a good investment!
We have a number of generic finance related domain names and have recently added to these through the £14,000 investment in debtconsolidation.co.uk and the purchase of debtfree.co.uk.
It's true that debt consolidation is one of the hottest terms especially in respect of PPC's and we believe we will get free traffic from people guessing the domains when they are looking for debt consolidation or debt free i.
4). Internet Marketing: The importance of a Domain Name
The domain name is the entry to your site. The address people type in their browsers to get to it. You need to pay attention to it, because your company name will not always be the best domain name you can get for your website. There are certain considerations you should keep in mind when choosing the domain name you will use:
· your domain name should be easy to remember for the intended audience
· your domain name should contain keywords so it helps your site positioning in search engines.
5). Expired Domain Name – What’s It All About?
Expired domain name is just a common status in the place of domain names. This certain status of the domain name takes place when the domain name holder forgot to renew the registered domain name, and so when a certain domain name is given as “expired domain name”, it is understandable that such expired domain name is on the way to deletion from the domain name registry.
6). GDI - Global Domains International Reviewed.
If you have been on the internet for any length of time looking at business options you will eventually come across someone promoting GDI to you. So this article is to answer some of the basic questions about GDI. Is this Business opportunity a scam? Do they have a product or service that is worthwhile? What is the potential of this opportunity? I will seek to answer these questions as objectively as possible.
7). Choose a Market You’re Passionate About and Stay Focussed
Choosing the right market is instrumental to your online success. It’s much more difficult to create a new market than to enter an existing market that is already highly profitable for existing businesses. The good thing about online business is that you can start a new business in a new market without as much overhead and headache as in the real world.