Critical Changes Needed in ICANN's gTLD Draft Guide

February 18, 2009; 02:59 AM

WASHINGTON D.C. - The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) should institute a variety of changes to its soon-to-be-issued  Draft Applicant Guidebook for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), states Michael Palage in "ICANN's 'Go/ No-Go' Decision Concerning New gTLDs," released today by The Progress & Freedom Foundation.  The proposed recommendations would address strong and global opposition to ICANN's initial draft Guidebook.

PFF Adjunct Fellow Palage suggests specific recommendations that should be addressed by ICANN prior to the release of its Draft Applicant Guide Book:

• Elimination of the proposed 5% global domain name tax: ICANN's ill-conceived and potentially illegal tax bears no correlation to cost recovery model, is not limited to name registration fees, and contains provisions to prevent double taxation.

• Creation of a Rebuttable Reserve Names List and an Expedited Domain Suspension Policy: Narrowly tailored to protect brand holders while respecting fair use rights, these mechanisms would minimize the need for expensive defensive domain name registration.

• Creation of a Uniform Proxy Registration Policy: Baseline practices and safeguards should be established for proxy registration to prevent abuse that could harm legitimate users.

• Creation of Registrant-Verified TLDs: Verifying the identity of registrants in certain TLDs would ensure accuracy of domain registration data and could minimize the need for defensive registrations.

"ICANN's 'Go/ No-Go' Decision Concerning New gTLDs" is available on the PFF website.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It is a 501(c)(3) research & educational organization.

CONTACT: Amy Smorodin

                    (202) 289-8928

Source: www.pff.org