http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KJ03Dj02.html
Domain chains fall away
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN - Internet governance could be in for a shake-up after the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this week lost its grip on the World Wide Web. The non-profit organization allotted by the US government to oversee Internet addresses opened up to a global audience as the agreement between it and the US Department of Commerce expired on Wednesday.
A new agreement allowing for greater global participation in the assignment of Internet addresses was signed. Companies and international officials seeking greater independence from US control praised the move; the Internet after all is now a global public resource. ICANN will no longer be subject to US reviews alone and can now be reviewed by a broader based group of stakeholders from around the world.
The fear is that the organization will open up the domain namedoors to include any variation of top level domains, which are traditionally dot com, net and org (see Domain doors open to dot chaos, Asia Times Online, June 28, 2009). New names such as ".golf" or ".sports" could flood the Internet and companies may need to rebrand themselves at great expense by registering the likes of ".intel" or ".apple".
There is also the notion that non-Latin names will be made available so we could start seeing domains in Chinese or Arabic. Both of these will cause problems to legitimate websites and companies as a domain-buying rush by cyber squatters and deceitful domain registrars would be inevitable. Cyber squatters, along with spammers, have become the scourge of the Internet. Their operation method is to buy and sit on domain names often associated with legitimate businesses, and they often set up deceptive websites using those domain names.
Freedom from US control over the Internet is a good thing but the dot chaos that could follow in its wake may not be so welcome.
Domain chains fall away
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN - Internet governance could be in for a shake-up after the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) this week lost its grip on the World Wide Web. The non-profit organization allotted by the US government to oversee Internet addresses opened up to a global audience as the agreement between it and the US Department of Commerce expired on Wednesday.
A new agreement allowing for greater global participation in the assignment of Internet addresses was signed. Companies and international officials seeking greater independence from US control praised the move; the Internet after all is now a global public resource. ICANN will no longer be subject to US reviews alone and can now be reviewed by a broader based group of stakeholders from around the world.
The fear is that the organization will open up the domain namedoors to include any variation of top level domains, which are traditionally dot com, net and org (see Domain doors open to dot chaos, Asia Times Online, June 28, 2009). New names such as ".golf" or ".sports" could flood the Internet and companies may need to rebrand themselves at great expense by registering the likes of ".intel" or ".apple".
There is also the notion that non-Latin names will be made available so we could start seeing domains in Chinese or Arabic. Both of these will cause problems to legitimate websites and companies as a domain-buying rush by cyber squatters and deceitful domain registrars would be inevitable. Cyber squatters, along with spammers, have become the scourge of the Internet. Their operation method is to buy and sit on domain names often associated with legitimate businesses, and they often set up deceptive websites using those domain names.
Freedom from US control over the Internet is a good thing but the dot chaos that could follow in its wake may not be so welcome.
