|
The United States Commerce Department has questioned a plan by Internet steward ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to allow a nearly unlimited number of new so-called generic top level domain names, as department officials expressed concerns about the proposed plan's costs and benefits. The warning has raised questions about potential U.S. political interests in Washington exercising an increased level of control over international non-profit organization ICANN. Consumer Benefits From Proposed ICANN Plan Questioned In June ICANN announced that it intended to implement the most drastic and sweeping changes to the Internet domain naming system in the network's 40 year history by radically reformatting the conventions Internet users follow when they type in Web site domain names and e-mail addresses. Under the planned ICANN policy, which the organization had planned to begin implementing early next year, domain names would see a drastic and virtually unlimited increase in the allowable suffixes, or TLDs, making possible such domain names as:  | www.microsoft.microsoft | | | www.amazon.shop | | | www.cocacola.coke | | | www.paris.france | | | www.thebest.domainname | | | www.somewhereoverthe.rainbow | | | www.internet.searchengine | | | www.thejonesfamilyoftheworld.jones | Domain names ending in words of all types could likely spring up if the new plan is implemented, although the governing body has attempted to set up safeguards to assure that only legitimate new generic top level domains (gTLDs) are implemented, the most stringent of which is likely to be a price-tag surpassing $100,000 in some cases. This week Department of Commerce officials also expressed concern over how the proposed ICANN plan might affect the existing Domain Name System (DNS). "The DOC is unconvinced that new gTLDs will alter the preference for .com domains, and fears that a huge number of new gTLDs will simply force companies to register them in order to maintain and redirect appropriate traffic," DOC official Deborah Garza wrote in a letter sent to ICANN last week. Another top DOC official voiced concerns in a separate letter sent to ICANN last week. The proposed plan does not make clear "whether the potential consumer benefits outweigh the potential costs," according to DOC official Meredith Baker, who leads the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is operated by the DOC. ICANN Top Level Domain Plan Questioned By U.S. Department of Commerce Baker said that ICANN needed to more thoroughly explain its plan to offer up to 800 new domain addresses for up to $185,000 each with an annual $60,000 fee, and to "articulate a clear rationale for the proposed fee structure as well as a transparent mechanism, that includes community agreement, for the disposition of excess revenues, should there be any, given ICANN's status as a non-profit entity," Baker wrote in the letter. In expanding the TLD system from an existing selection of 21 well-thought-out and time-tested suffixes along with a few dozen country-code domains such as .us for United States domains and .cn for China's domains, the new ICANN scheme could create millions of new domain extensions, which some industry analysts fear could become a source of confusion among consumers accustomed to typing in a simple Web address. Despite ongoing discussions by ICANN to grant itself more administrative freedom, the organization continues to operate partially under a contract with the U.S. government. It remained unclear whether the DOC criticisms leveled in the two letters sent last week would alter ICANN's proposed plan. Related Links:
| 
