<nettime> Esther Dyson: The Domain Name That Got Left Out

[t byfield <tbyfield@panix.com>]

----- Forwarded 

From: James Love <love@cptech.org>
Organization: http://www.cptech.org
To: Multiple recipients of list RANDOM-BITS <random-bits@lists.essential.org>
Subject: Re: [Random-bits] Esther Dyson: The Domain Name That Got Left Out
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 23:47:14 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Random-bits] Esther Dyson: The Domain Name That Got Left Out
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 19:10:22 -0500
From: t byfield <tbyfield@panix.com>
To: James Love <love@cptech.org>
References: <3A68BE92.5099A10F@cptech.org>

love@cptech.org (Fri 01/19/01 at 05:24 PM -0500):

> http://release1.edventure.com/release3.cfm?Counter=2235530
> 
> The Domain Name That Got Left Out
> - distributed by the New York Times Syndicate (November 2000)
> By Esther Dyson

jamie--

afaik, dyson first published this essay on december 5 in the
_south china morning post_, where she seems to have a column.
i wrote a short critical about it in the roving_reporter.[1]

i don't think many well-informed people take her support of name.space
very seriously. it was pretty clear that, among the applicants for the new
TLDs, there was a good chance that some might sue ICANN if they weren't
happy with the results.  two likely candidates were the ones that had
already initiated lawsuits over DNS issues--i.e., name.space (which sued
NSI[2])  and IOD (which sued IANA[3] and CORE[4]). in that regard, there
were certainly pragmatic reasons for ICANN's boardmembers (dyson, as you
know was chairman) to go out of their way to put on a public show of
advocacy, even if these applicants didn't (as i think) stand any realistic
chance of being approved: doing so would make it all but impossible for
them to sue ICANN.

name.space had already adopted an openly aggressive posture when it
challenged the validity of ICANN's nonrefundable $50,000 application
fee.[6] paul garrin's questions, btw, were excellent --unlike ICANN VP
louis touton's answers, which were nothing more than bureaucratic
evasions. his questions have only become more pressing, given the
ambiguity of how ICANN will dispose of the $2.2M it garnered through the
TLD application process.[7]

the discrepancy in the public discussions between the treatment of the
".web" and ".biz" proposals provides circumstantial evidence (imo) this
kind thing of was going on. there was extensive discussion about the
potential problems posed by afilias's ".web"  application (IOD had filed
to trademark the ".web" TLD and had sued CORE over CORE's proposal for the
same TLD); but the fact that Neulevel's application for ".biz" would
conflict with the atlantic root network's ".biz"[5] went unmentioned (ARN
hasn't initiated any lawsuits in this regard) during the proceedings.

obviously, an op-ed that dyson writes *after* leaving ICANN might suggest
this slightly cynical reading is off-base, and that she genuinely does
support name.space. that could be; but does it really matter what she
'personally' thinks now that she's left ICANN? her alleged support for
'the little guy' was hardly much in evidence during her tenure as ICANN's
CoB. she could have used her two years in office as a bully pulpit;
instead, she spent that time overseeing the development of an institution
that is utterly dominated by intellectual property concerns. ah, but she
spent a few minutes during her last few hours talking up a pro- posal
about which she herself said with a titter, "Off the top of my head, the
IP [Intellectual Property] constituency did not select you as one of their
choices" for a new TLD[8]--basically acknowledging that rejection by the
IPC is the kiss of death.

cheers,
t

     [1] http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann5.html#5
     [2] http://name-space.com/law/
     [3] http://www.jmls.edu/cyber/cases/iod1.html
     [4] http://www.icann.org/tlds/correspondence/iod-v-core-22jun00.htm
     [5] http://www.biztld.net/
     [6] http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann3.html#1
     [7] http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann5.html#20
     [8] http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/icann4.html#5

-- 

\|/ ____ \|/ 
@~/ oO \~@    <http://www.tbtf.com/roving_reporter/>
/_( \__/ )_\ 
\_U__/
_______________________________________________
Random-bits mailing list
Random-bits@lists.essential.org
http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/random-bits




#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net