2009/12/29 James Seng <james@seng.sg>
I cannot, however, understand the issues/complains about translation.
Why would someone who don't understand Chinese knows that "手机应用商店.cn<http://xn--czr79ska309ap0hmnx.cn> " means mobileappstore.com?
For that matter, how would a Chinese knows "手机应用商店.cn<http://xn--czr79ska309ap0hmnx.cn>" translate to mobileappstore.com?
The fact is they don't.
手机应用商店.cn <http://xn--czr79ska309ap0hmnx.cn> could likely be translate to handphoneusageshop.cn or that mobileappstore.com could be translated to 移动软件商店.com<http://xn--5nqw3gqvcuuovp8as50a.com> .
This is all correct. However, none of the factual accuracy of the above statements may prevent an aggressive and/or unethical registrar from pressuring domain owners to "protect" their name by buying IDN versions. Such "marketing" may suggest implied threats that if you don't try to buy a name of similar maening (or similar phoenetic sound) in another language the owners of IDNs may come after *you*. Some of the above mail explains correctly why these threats are not valid, but this may not be understood by casual registrants. The purpose of an At-Large initiative on the matter -- at least as I see it -- is to provide information to registrants (and the public) regarding the coming growth of IDNs. Such information should address issues that could become fears, such as: - Are IDNs even valid? Will they take me to a malware site? - How do I get to domains that I can't type on my keyboard? - How do I need to protect my domains against others that look similar? (ie, francais.com versus français.com <http://xn--franais-xxa.com>) - How do I protect myself against translated versions of my site's name? (ie mobileappstore.com vs 移动软件商店.com <http://xn--5nqw3gqvcuuovp8as50a.com/>) - How do I protect myself against IDNs that translate into similar meanings to my site name? (ie, mobileappstore.com <http://mobileappstore.com/> vs 手机应用商店.com<http://%E6%89%8B%E6%9C%BA%E5%BA%94%E7%94%A8%E5%95%86%E5%BA%97.cn/> ) - How do I prevent such sites making trademark claims against my domain for the same reasons? The answers to these questions may seem evident to people here, but not IMO to the general public. And I certainly see the fear and confusion that may accompany IDNs being exploited by unethical people. Informing the public of the issues about IDNs, reduicing fear and fraud, are what I see to be the main issues here. To be certain, many questions and fears about IDNs will come not from new users, but from longtime users who are used to an all-latin-alphabet Internet and will be surprised (and maybe even scared) of unrecognizable names. I am not sure, however, if these are the same as Joly's concerns. - Evan