Since I don't now know the business models that are to be adopted by these so-called closed string registries, I'm disadvantaged in determining harm, if any. And assuming you could find some, I would likely consider those in context of the roadblocks faced by say a regular cat lover buying a domain in the .cat registry and wishing to use it to the greater glory of some haughty puss. Every man has the right to his poison. Hell, that might just be a manifestation of one of them cat-loving fetishes like the ancient Egyptians! Tell me quick, why should that intent be rubbished or dispossessed?
I think ICANN is going back to deal with the key issue of whether to interprete or monitor or control the registration policy (who can be the registrants and what can be registered as domain names) of a new TLD committed in the application. This does not only involve "closed generic" TLD strings but many other issues, such as protection of IGO/INGO names, management of IDN variants and maintenance of the "closeness" of the community-based TLDs. Currently, all the application committments are yet to be included in the delegation agreement and thus will not be subject to the "compliance" mechanism. Should ICANN change this Laissez-faire approach, generally or specific for closed generic TLD strings? I think ICANN should have a holistic view. Hong -- Professor Dr. Hong Xue Director of Institute for the Internet Policy & Law (IIPL) Beijing Normal University http://www.iipl.org.cn/ 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Street Beijing 100875 China