US lawmakers demand termination of new tlds

Vision · Sep 17, 2009

Will be interesting to see what unfolds --

here is the link --

http://www.domainnamenews.com/up-to-the-minute/republican-lawmakers-oppose-tlds/6044

09|17|2009 10:53 am EDT

Republican Lawmakers Oppose New TLDs
by Chad Kettner

Lamar Smith and Howard Coble, two of the House Judiciary Committeeâs top Republicans, have sent a message to ICANN to express concerns about the proposed introduction of numerous top level domains - stating that vast expansion and absence of price caps in the new registry deals could hurt business owners and consumers in the United States.

In their letter to Rod Beckstrom, the CEO of ICANN, Smith and Coble stated that they were worried about the addition of numerous TLDs and that they could carry âserious negative consequencesâ due to cyber-squatting, fraud, and overall confusion in the online marketplace.

Additionally, the two believe that the absence of price caps in the new registry deals could mean that legitimate business owners would need to pay a premium whenever registering or renewing their domain names.

Richard Tindal, senior VP at eNom disagrees. âThere is only so much Internet traffic and so many cyber-squatter dollars available at any given point in time. Doubling the number of [domains] will not double the amount of cybersquatting.â

stock_post · Sep 17, 2009

law makers are correct and the enom guy is an waste fellow.

Vjizzle · Sep 17, 2009

Who is paying these politicians off (Yes, I'm cynical)? Someone has money invested in trying to squash TLD's from happening.

BidNo · Sep 17, 2009

Vjizzle said:
Who is paying these politicians off (Yes, I'm cynical)? Someone has money invested in trying to squash TLD's from happening.

In this case the push is clearly coming from the IP lobby. However they've also wrapped in other arguments (lack of price cap's, etc.) to buttress the case. In my opinion, blocking this is a good thing as I see it as a money grab by a few that leaves everyone else to bare the costs. And as thoroughly supported by history, I am completely uncomfortable with an independent ICANN; Congress needs to extend their oversight. Though it may not be the ultimate answer it's certainly preferable to leaving ICANN unaccountable.