Re: [ga] Geographic and Geopolitical Names in .info

[Mike Roberts <mmr@darwin.ptvy.ca.us>]

Alexander - excellent post on a complicated topic.

The tactical situation is traceable back to a continuing ambiguity 
about the extent to which the DNS namespace is a public resource to 
be allocated through governmental processes versus a private resource 
recently opened to investment and commercialization.

Obviously, what we have today is some of both in a fairly confused 
mix and no well defined boundary line between the two.  In addition 
to the confusion generated by varying national law and culture 
differences, there are philosophical differences.  In the US, we have 
long had the assumption that if a resource has not specifically been 
placed or retained under government management, then it's open for 
private exploitation.  In many parts of the world, the tradition is 
that resources are public unless placed in the private sector.

The newly elected black majority government of South Africa firmly 
believes it is entitled to control of the name of its country in the 
DNS namespace and it is currently litigating an existing registration 
in a US court.  If it loses, I have no doubt that it will seek other 
remedies through national law and international treaty. If it wins, 
there will be an immediate effect on DNS registration policies.

There are deeply felt national identity issues here, and the ICANN 
community against developing country governments is an unequal 
contest, especially when the counter-argument, in the view of the 
governments concerned, is an excess of commercial greed in first 
world countries.

So I think the challenge is to see if we cannot find a middle ground 
which is responsive to the desires of these governments and can 
attract their support, or at least their acquiescence, without unduly 
compromising the flexibility and availability of domain names through 
private sector mechanisms.

- Mike


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