Bret Fausett wrote:
There's an important policy issue here about what weight a political process should have in ICANN's decisions. Once upon a long time ago, Jon Postel specifically declined to issue ccTLDs to governments, only to groups representing users, on the theory that governments change, but the users are always here. (ICANN has proven more sympathetic to government interests than Postel.)
The problem is that it is extremely difficult nowadays to identify who represents the users. Also, since the operator has to be located in the country, it would be anyway under the country's jurisdiction, and ultimately had to obey the local government wishes. This is not the case for city TLDs. I am not a lawyer, but I don't have the impression that the city of Berlin would have any legal authority on a TLD operated within the city limits, nor would the Land of Berlin. This does not mean to imply that political positions are not important, just that in this case they cannot be binding. But, again, IANAL. Cheers, Roberto