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Congress to put .sucks on trial

Kevin Murphy, May 6, 2015, 19:13:42 (UTC), Domain Policy

The US Congress is to hold a hearing to look into the .sucks gTLD and ICANN accountability.
A hearing entitled “Stakeholder Perspectives on ICANN: The .sucks Domain and Essential Steps to Guarantee Trust and Accountability in the Internet’s Operation” has been scheduled by the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet
It will take place in Washington DC next Wednesday, May 13.
The list of witnesses does not yet appear to have been published.
I would guess we’d be looking at, at the very least, somebody senior from ICANN, somebody senior from .sucks registry Vox Populi, and an intellectual property lawyer.
It was ICANN’s Intellectual Property Constituency that complained about .sucks’ sunrise policies and fees, causing ICANN to refer the matter to US and Canadian trade regulators.
The title of the House hearing suggests that the .sucks controversy will be inextricably tied to the broader issue of ICANN accountability, which is currently undergoing a significant review as ICANN seeks to split permanently from US government oversight.
That’s not great optics for ICANN; I’m sure the organization would rather not have its performance judged on what is quite an unusual edge case emerging from the new gTLD program.

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Comments (7)

  1. James says:

    Not to rush to the defense of .sucks, but will every policy/compliance issue now become a litmus test for “ICANN Accountability”?

  2. Carlos Leone says:

    “That’s not great optics for ICANN; I’m sure the organization would rather not have its performance judged on what is quite an unusual edge case emerging from the new gTLD program.” That’s spot on but remember – ICANN is the one who decided to refer this whole mess to the FTC and Canadian authorities. So yes their performance will be judged because of that action. Including the sweetheart $$ deal they cut with VOX.
    By referring this to the FTC, ICANN invited Congress into this. All while the IANA transfer is a hot button issue. Well played ICANN. Well played.

  3. BT says:

    best free publicity ever

  4. John Berryhill says:

    Apparently, the witness list includes the Internet Commerce Association as a “me too” chorus of the Intellectual Property Constituency.

    • Hello John,
      All of the New Quasi-Derivative gTLD extensions are pushed out mainly as Spamm Fodder for the ring Leader GOOGLES usage for flooding the DNS for Anti-Competitive reasons. Those who dispute this will find this to be the end result of continual monitoring and future depositions proving this premise as fact. JAS 5/8/15
      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) (Former Rockefeller IBEC Marketing Analyst/Strategist)

  5. Jim Prendergast says:

    A second hearing in a different committee is scheduled for that afternoon. No indication yet of those witnesses. http://energycommerce.house.gov/press-release/members-review-dotcom-act-and-discuss-transition-internet-oversight-functions

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