Robin,

 

People are free to “use” the term “FRANCE” as much as they want – obviously in the DNS as well. But cybersquatting on “.france” or “.paris” is a bad idea. The term “Paris” doesn’t “belong” to the French Government, or the City Government of Paris, France. And nobody ever said so – and OBVIOUSLY there is no legal reasoning that would support such notion. But the underlying problem is a bit like “access to beaches”:
Do you want that the entire coast of California would be closed off to the public – because some real estate corporation reserved all access rights – and grants access only to those they fancy (e.g. people who have a house at the beach – so they have their private beach)? That would be the result if a “brand” squatted in “.paris”.

There might be a “brand” or a “innovative business idea” that wants to cybersquat on .paris – but the good people of Paris (essentially all Parises in the world) have a right (and it doesn’t matter whether that right is written in stone or not – whether there is a “law” of any sorts) to use the name of their city as identifier. So IF somebody wanted to use .paris (I know it’s delegated) – then shouldn’t the people of Paris France (and potentially other significant places called Paris, such as in TX) be at least looped in? And that’s what the 2012 AG does: It requires that the representatives of The People in a given location sign off on the gTLD operation plan. I do not really understand what is so crazy terrible “off” on such notion?

If there are no prerequisite requirements (letter of non-objection) for applying for a city TLD I can GUARANTEE you that ALL cities with a population larger 500,000  (hint: it’s over 1,000 cities that fall in that category) will be applied for by just a handful of applicants – in an attempt to blanket the city space. And they have ZERO intention to do good for the people in that city – they just want to plunder the namespace. A city gTLD is a valuable infrastructure resource just as the street grid – and needs to be operated, managed and policed with GREATEST care – and in conjunction with the local authorities and operators. Anything else is BONKERS. At least in my mind.

 

Sorry for ranting – but city gTLDs are something that touches my heart. Not EVERYTHING on this planet should be “for sale for the highest bid”. At some point the “common good” is more important. Maybe I am too German.

Thanks,

Alexander.berlin

 

 

 

 

 

From: Gnso-newgtld-wg-wt5 [mailto:gnso-newgtld-wg-wt5-bounces@icann.org] On Behalf Of Robin Gross
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2018 8:24 PM
To: Icann Gnso Newgtld Wg Wt5 <gnso-newgtld-wg-wt5@icann.org>
Subject: Re: [Gnso-newgtld-wg-wt5] France seizes France.com from man who’s had it since ‘94, so he sues - Ars Technica

 

It is also a reminder of  the level of bullying that some governments are capable of doing in this space and their disregard for the legitimate rights of others to use words in the DNS.  This is a serious concern -- to see such little regard for the freedom of expression rights to use words with a geographic meaning.  Absent an actual internationally agreed legal rule that holds people can’t use the word “France” or other words with geographic meanings, it would be a huge mistake for ICANN to adopt such an anti-innovation and pro-censorship position in domain name policy as demanded by some govts here.

 

Robin

 

 

 

On Apr 29, 2018, at 3:36 PM, farzaneh badii <farzaneh.badii@gmail.com> wrote:

 

Great, lets keep it limited. But thanks Greg for reminding us where we can end up..   some  supported two-letter second level domain names that correspond to cctlds to go to governments and  cctld managers in new gtlds. Some of those were generic pronouns like in and it. But no one had mercy on generic names and no justifiable reason was given other than oh governments own everything when it comes to their cctld... or at least can claim ownership. The irony? Some of those cctld managers are actually private companies benefiting handsomely from this. 

 

 

Farzaneh

 

On Sun, Apr 29, 2018 at 4:17 PM, Carlos Raul Gutierrez <carlosraul@gutierrez.se> wrote:

Thanks Greg!

Very interesting but I'm afraid our scope is limited to the top level.....

 

On April 29, 2018 1:31:59 PM CST, Javier Rua <javrua@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Greg.

Javier Rúa-Jovet

 

+1-787-396-6511

twitter: @javrua

skype: javier.rua1

https://www.linkedin.com/in/javrua 

 

On Apr 29, 2018, at 2:05 PM, Greg Shatan <gregshatanipc@gmail.com> wrote:

I thought this article would be of interest to WT5.

 

Greg

 

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Greg Shatan <gregshatanipc@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Apr 29, 2018 at 12:37 PM
Subject: France seizes France.com from man who’s had it since ‘94, so he sues - Ars Technica
To: <gregshatanipc@gmail.com>

 

France seizes France.com from man who’s had it since ‘94, so he sues - Ars Technica


https://apple.news/AxM_G3MkGSXW8YOXTibo8wg

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--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

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