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Kroes slams ICANN new gTLD approval

Kevin Murphy, June 22, 2011, 04:06:52 (UTC), Domain Policy

Neelie Kroes, vice-president of the European Commission, has repeated her call for ICANN reform after it rejected governmental advice in its newly approved top-level domains program.
According to a statement from her official spokesperson sent to Intellectual Property Watch, Kroes said the approval of the program “disregard[ed] governmental advice on public policy issues” and “underscores the need for the model to be reformed to remain sustainable”.

The lack of an adequate response on the part of ICANN Board clearly points to some deficiencies in the current functioning of the model. This calls for specific actions in order to remedy the situation.

Kroes seems to believe that governments are entitled to every concession they demand from “multistakeholder” policy-making processes.
According to IP-Watch, she promised to coordinate a response with EU member states and the US.
While the Governmental Advisory Committee had filed about 80 objections to aspects of the Applicant Guidebook earlier this year, ICANN managed to whittle the list down to a small handful.
It refused to remove the requirement for trademark owners to provide proof of use before participating in sunrise periods, and to lower the burden of proof in certain anti-cybersquatting mechanisms.
Governments also don’t seem particularly convinced by ICANN’s decision to approve the program before consulting more deeply with competition authorities over the vertical integration issue.
GAC chair Heather Dryden delivered a more measured statement expressing “disappointment” with the decision yesterday.
EC GAC representative Gerard de Graaf, who’s earning himself a reputation in ICANN as a bit of a firebrand, was less measured in his response, accusing ICANN of potentially putting new gTLD applicants at risk of violating European competition laws.
More at Intellectual Property Watch.

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Comments (9)

  1. Qwerty says:

    ICANN deserves to be slammed. The idea is a bad one and gTLDs will ultimately .FAIL
    It was a Pandora’s Box that should never have been opened. As a result, lots of investors are sure to lose lots of money.
    Has anyone seen the hilareous video on http://www.Oceanfrontdomains.Com? It succinctly says it all.
    Stick with .COM — your grandkids will thank you. Besides, that is where the intended visitors of the new gTLD’s will accidentally be ending up in droves.

  2. […] Kroes slams ICANN new gTLD approval Posted by Jag  Published in Domaining.com Kroes slams ICANN new gTLD approval […]

  3. theo says:

    Maybe it fails maybe it doesn’t. It depends on your point of view. ICANN’s mission is not to carter the domaining after market.
    The new gTLD approval isn’t something that was just thought up 2 weeks ago. This was long due. The longer it was dragged on the more it made ccTLD’s and .COM dominant in their own specific regions.
    And looking at this article i assume there still some rather hot potatoes tobe swallowed before we can register the first new gTLD. .XXX excluded.

  4. […] would be some sort of government action. Governments aren’t happy, and there’s that looming IANA contract expiration coming up later this year. The U.S. could […]

  5. Tom G says:

    Yes, the Gubments didn’t get everything they wanted, boo hoo.
    @qwerty, yes I believe the video makes the point very well. That was the only web address left. They would rather much have clownpenis.invest

  6. […] would be some sort of government action. Governments aren’t happy, and there’s that looming IANA contract expiration coming up later this year. The U.S. could use […]

  7. […] would be some sort of government action. Governments aren’t happy, and there’s that looming IANA contract expiration coming up later this year. The U.S. could use […]

  8. […] would be some sort of government action. Governments aren’t happy, and there’s that looming IANA contract expiration coming up later this year. The U.S. could […]

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