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    IP Justice is a member of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) and the European Digital Rights Initiative (EDRi).

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    ICANN Policy Issue: Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

    Another important issue that the ICANN’s GNSO Policy Council is currently addressing is the introduction of new generic top-level domain names (gTLDs).

    IP Justice supports the introduction of new gTLDs and is concerned about the chilling effect on freedom of expression raised by the current Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Recommendations and also the GNSO Policy Council’s Recommendations.

    GAC Principles would limit new gTLDs to only those words that are not offensive, are not trademarked, and have no religious, sexual or political meaning.

    Another major problem with the current GAC proposal is that it would give any group of countries a veto over any new gTLD string application. Under the proposed policy, if an institution such as the Catholic Church complained about an application for a domain name (such as .abortion), the application would not be granted.

    In other words, ICANN’s proposed policy for new gTLDs could be a recipe for censorship and an invasion of national sovereignty, since the intolerances of other cultures will be imposed on all societies.

    ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) submitted a constituency impact statement on the New TLD Committee’s Recommendations that expressed concerns about ICANN evaluating string applications for non-technical issues, like "morality".

    NCUC also opposes the creation of a public opposition period that would allow competitors, critics, and others to prevent the registration of a new domain. NCUC also remains concerned about the role of ICANN staff and outside expert panels to adjudicate the rights of individuals to use language on the Internet.

    In early June 2007, ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) proposed 5 amendments to the gnso’s draft recommendations to protect free expression and innovation in domain name policy at ICANN. NCUC’s proposals are intended to keep the Internet core neutral of national, regional, religious, moral, and cultural policy conflicts. ICANN should refrain from trying to set global public policy rules that mandate "sensitivities" and "morality" and focus on its technical mission of assigning names and numbers.

    ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) also developed new gtld policy recommendations. 

    The GNSO Policy Council sent the recommendations to the ICANN Board of Directors in the Fall of 2007.  The ICANN Board voted at its meeting in February 2008 in New Delhi to accept the non-controversial recommendations while sending the controversial or un-implementable recommendations back to the GNSO for further work.  The GNSO awaits the Board’s lists and instructions.

    What You Can Do:

    Key Documents in GTLD Policy Development Process: * GNSO New GTLD Committee Draft Final Report (8 August 2007): Part A: final policy recommendations and dissenting statements Part B: supporting documents and constituency statements

    IP Justice Statements and Media Releases on New GTLD Policy Development:

    Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) Statements:

    NCUC Proposals to Amend New GTLD Policy Recommendations: ICANN’s Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) proposed amendments to the draft policy recommendations to try to protect free expression and innovation in domain name policy. The New GTLD Committee did not accept any of NCUC’s proposals. * NCUC Proposals of June 2007 * NCUC Proposals of Feb. 2007 Legal Briefing Papers on New GTLD Policy Development:

    Other Statements:

    ICANN GNSO Council on New GTLD Policy Development:

     

    Above: GNSO Policy Council Meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil, December 2006. (L-R) NCUC Representative Robin Gross and Nominating Committee Representative Sophia Bekele.

    Below: (R-L) Mawaki Chango, Brett Fausett, Philip Sheppard, Norbert Klein, Robin Gross, Sophia Bekele, ?. GNSO Policy Council Meeting in Brazil 2006.

    New Domain Names (gtlds)

    • 8 Jul, 2008: Comment on ICANN’s Proposed Plan to Censor Top-Level Domains (Until 17 July 2008)
      ICANN is Accepting Public Comment on Its Plan to Introduce New GTLDs. Members of the public are encouraged to tell ICANN to protect free expression and individual rights at the top-level of the Internet. ICANN: "At its 25 June 2008 meeting in Paris, France the GNSO Council voted to invite public comments on the 21 June 2008 version ...

    • 6 Jul, 2008: ICAAN – Preventing Hatred v. Censorship of TLD Applications (Digital Journal)
      With all the excitement over expansion of IP addresses to be expanded from 4-string to 6-string format, little has been reported on the current and proposed regulations to restrict new domain registration. Watchdogs are deeply concerned over censorship. ....

    • 1 Jul, 2008: ICANN Go-Ahead on GTLDs with “String Criteria” of “Morality and Public Order”
      "There has been wide coverage of ICANN’s decision this week to adopt a new process for creating new global Top Level Domains (gTLDs).... Civil libertarians supporting Susan Crawford’s line argue that if governments are able to pressure ICANN into prohibiting .jihad (which has perfectly non-violent meanings in Islam as well as the terrorist connotations it has recently acquired in the ...

    • 26 Jun, 2008: ICANN Board Approves Censorship Policy for Domain Names Based on Morality: 2 Board Members Speak Against It
      Today in Paris the ICANN Board passed the GNSO's controversial recommendations to censor top level domains based on notions of "morality and public order", and broadly defined "community" wishes. However, 2 ICANN board members, law professors Wendy Seltzer (on behalf of the At-Large Internet Users) and Susan Crawford, made very powerful and compelling statements to protect free expression on ...

    • 15 May, 2008: US Congress Cites Free Expression as Reason ICANN Must Remain Controlled by US Govt.
      US Congressmen are up to their old tricks of pretending to care about free expression publicly, while undermining it's practice with their policy decisions -- especially when it comes to free speech on the Internet. Congressman Edward Markey, the Chairman of the Congressional Sub-committee on Telecommunications and the Internet sent a letter urging the US Government to refuse ...

    • 20 Feb, 2008: Domain Names are Bigger than Trademarks: ICANN’s New Consumer Protection Role
      The terminology “confusingly similar” lends itself to the expansion of trademark rights to domain names by commercial uses and governments to the disadvantage of non-commercial users. ICANN should refrain from taking on consumer protection type roles (such as preventing “confusion” in people) and only regulate issues related to the technical coordination of the Domain Name System.

    • 5 Dec, 2007: IGP Blog on ICANN Domain Name Policy: “Land Grab? ccTLDs and multilingual names”
      "The introduction of internationalized domain names (IDNs) offers the world one of the best opportunities it will ever have to introduce more diversity and competition into the domain name registry market. That market is currently dominated by VeriSign, which operates the .com and .net domains (as well as a couple of TLDs it bought, .tv and cc) and hence controls ...

    • 13 Nov, 2007: Robin Gross’ Remarks at IGF 2007 on Internet Bill of Rights
      Today I’d like to address a few issues that are specifically relevant to the positive development of the Internet and a healthy information society. 1. Freedom of Expression Rights. 2. Access to Knowledge Rights. 3. Communication Rights. 4. Privacy Rights and Data Protection. 5. Anonymity. 6. Excessive and ...

    • 12 Nov, 2007: Internet Domain Name Censorship Vote Delayed (Toward Freedom)
      The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which makes policy governing the Internet's Domain Name System, recently held its 30th International Public Meeting in Los Angeles. ICANN has stumbled into serious controversy as it threatens to establish policies for systematic censorship of generic top-level domains ("gTLDs" such as '.com' or '.org'), and it left these issues unresolved as ...

    • 2 Nov, 2007: ICANN forms group to hasten non-English domain names (AP)
      The decision by ICANN represents another step toward the approval of internationalized domain names, or IDNs, as early as next year. The working group will focus on domains for specific countries, such as the Chinese-character equivalent of China's ".cn" suffix. ICANN started technical tests on such suffixes last month, but work on policy questions is still preliminary. ...

    • View all entries under New Domain Names (gtlds)