Interesting discussion on the NCSG list sort of pertaining to TLD marketing, I'm guessing they won't mind me cross-posting it. Anybody know these guys? http://www.pfir.org/index.html#info -----Forwarded Message----- From: Nicolas Adam Sent: Aug 28, 2011 5:23 PM To: NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU Subject: [NCSG-Discuss] Fwd: "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network Solutions Home Page You'll notice the "Protect Your Brand", in the center. It's not as big as the criticism below make it to be but it's there. Would it be relevant and/or feasible to 'regulate' (read encourage/constrain ==> through types of means that i will leave open to discussion) the way registrar can market those new TLD? First, it doesn't look good. Second, while i don't think anybody (except perhaps established registrars) who are in favor of gTLD expansion have a clear view of what the emergent system of naming and names will or should be, i am pretty sure no-one so disposed would care to advocate that this system should establish itself mainly as a protection scheme. Is forcing advertising to depart with the protection rhetoric a step forward? Is it feasible? Just some thoughts. Nicolas -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [ NNSquad ] "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network Solutions Home Page Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 12:42:23 -0700 From: Lauren Weinstein [1]<lauren@vortex.com> To: [2]nnsquad@nnsquad.org "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network Solutions Home Page This "in your face" promotion currently running on the Network Solutions home page clearly illustrates how the current top-level domains (gTLD) expansion plan is akin to a traditional "Sign up now or something bad might, uh, happen to you, buddy!" protection racket. [3]http://j.mp/ofrzyv (Lauren's Blog - Screen capture from networksolutions.co m) As you can see, there is no concept of community service, social responsibility, or even real "value-added" benefits. The promotion for two TLDs is explicitly about *protection* -- as in protecting yourself from someone else grabbing those domains and making you look bad, confusing your customers, and worse -- whether you have any real interest in those TLDs or not. And this is *only the beginning*, my friends. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([4]lauren@vortex.com): [5]http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: [6]http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: [7]http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: [8]http://www.gctip.o rg - PRIVACY Forum: [9]http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog: [10]http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: [11]http://vortex.com/g+lauren Twitter: [12]https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com References 1. mailto:lauren@vortex.com 2. mailto:nnsquad@nnsquad.org 3. http://j.mp/ofrzyv 4. mailto:lauren@vortex.com 5. http://www.vortex.com/lauren 6. http://www.pfir.org/ 7. http://www.nnsquad.org/ 8. http://www.gctip.org/ 9. http://www.vortex.com/ 10. http://lauren.vortex.com/ 11. http://vortex.com/g+lauren 12. https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein