For the ALAC/NCUC free expression workshop, it would be good to mention that ALAC co-sponsored a workshop on free expression in gTLD policy. Speakers on the panel commented that ICANN should stick to its thin, technical mission, and keep policy decisions out of the core. Trademark, which deals with territorial limits and classes of goods and services, is not a direct match with TLD strings, while concerns of morality and appropriateness are better left to governments to manage in their own jurisdictions. Attempting to harmonize those restriction requests in gTLD policy will result in a race to the bottom that prevents innovators from experimenting and enhancing the network's value in unexpected ways, speakers suggested. Thanks, --Wendy Annette Muehlberg wrote:
Dear Jaqueline, do you plan to send out the public forum presentation so we can make comments on it?
These are my proposals of what you should mention in the PF concerning city TLDs
ALAC ran a very interesting workshop together with NCUC on Geo TLDs. We heard, that user confusion seems not to be a big concern.
We would like to stress that taking the example of city TLDs they give a great opportunity for users. More choice, the possibility of identification with your region/city, good opportunities for local business. What has to be considered are rights of governments to register governmental domains, so not other people will get those names, trademarks will be dealt with in a sunrise period - the usual stuff. A local geographical and unrestricted (!) domain is a very useful addition to the excisting TLDs for the users.
Annette
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-- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org Visiting Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html http://www.chillingeffects.org/