So who did want .xxx? ICANN and ICM who run .xxx (Of course ICANN pretended it didn’t want .xxx and had to grant it on legal grounds – Really if it didn’t want it why didn’t it decide whether to allocate it or not on public interest grounds and simply pay ICM damages if it had messed them around? 
If ICANN had wanted to be sensible it could have opened a window for categories for where new gTLDs might be actually needed (eg. IDN and communities), but no ICANN led by Peter Dengate Thrush said no we want to open it up to .anything. At the time I couldn’t work out why Peter Dengate Thrush was opposed to even any discussion on targeting new gTLD to where they might be needed.

Days later after the ICANN Board vote which he led, Peter Dengate Thrush joined a new gTLD company looking to benefit from creating new gTLDs. 

The whole new gTLD program is riddled with fundamental flaws.dell .ibm no problem but what about .hp – not possible because 2 characters are reserved for countries.brands are a classic example where you can pay ICANN $185,000 + $25,000 p.a. in addition to $10. p.a. for a .com. Now that may help with a short term branding advantage, but it means if a major player moves to the right of the dot in any vertical then all the other companies will also have to move to simply enjoy the same level of implicit DNS branding. Proctor and Gamble have over 80 brands a single company like Proctor and Gamble with over 80 brands will need to spend over $15,000,000 if they wish to apply for all their brands as new gTLDs and pay ICANN a further $2,000,000 every year going forward compared with the existing system cost of $800 p.a

Medium sized players will have to consider whether it’s worth spending $185,000 + $25,000 per year with ICANN to enjoy the same level of implicit DNS branding and enter ICANN’s .brand super league. For start ups and smaller players the cost of admission to this implicit DNS branding advantage is likely to prove prohibitive.

The level playing field of the Internet will be destroyed.

ok, who gets dibs on .hartford? the ins/financial giant or the city of ct?

who gets .lexington? the furniture company or the city in ky? the furniture company already owns the .com so shouldn’t they get first shot?

how about .burlington? the coat company or the city in vt?

.springfield?  does the city in MA, IL, MO, etc. get preference over rick or buffalo???

.msg? the folks at The Garden or chinese restaurateurs?

just a few examples of why this idea is like bailing out banks.

Catchy Headline though. Maybe put that in your resume to Fox News

I simply can’t accept your somewhat conspiratorial argument that I’m blinkered as a result of being tainted by IP lawyers. Survey the academic blogs and you’ll find little support there as well. Groups like UNESCO, the World Bank and the International Labour Organziation oppose it as well.

In any case, thanks for sharing your thoughts. We’ll see how this turns out in January.

the ancient chinese who made the hot burning coal known as such, the cartels in colombia, or the 6 pack bottlers who were last on the scene?

I don’t think the opposition stems from the “IP lobby”, the 1% or any other sinister cabal. If this is the case, why is the FTC and groups like the World Health Organization opposing it?

And, for what it’s worth, I’m a lawyer with a background in IP who is a frequent critic of companies that misuse intellectual property.

Finally, I’ve spoken with ICANN in the past about this issue and came away unconvinced that it’s necessary or desired.

I’m not under the sway of anyone. I just agree that it’s a bad idea.

if icann wants to “double its revenue”, simply boost the per domain fee from (the ridiculously low) .18 per domain they currently have to .36.

heck, .40 would boost their revenue by nearly 125%.

prollum solved!

if memory serves, icann tried this scheme several years ago but the ransom was ~80k back then. feel free to correct me if i’m wrong.

It would be virtually impossible, very expensive and ridiculously stupid for anyone but Chanel to apply and be awarded the .chanel top level domain. A very basic understanding of the rules is all you need to know this.

There are hundreds of groups, cities, governments, brands, cultures, communities that want to carve a unique space on the web. New York City, Paris, Rome, Berlin, .ECO and more.

New domains will allow the MAJORITY of internet users who do NOT speak English to navigate the web in their language without switching between scripts. New Top Level Domains are planned for Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Chinese and more.

The vast majority of opposition comes from the IP lobby – large corporations who fear change and losing some of their wealthiest 1% competitive advantage. 

Apparently your research of this was derived almost exclusively from these sources.