[ga] Re: [wg-c] Object lesson in why we need new TLDs

[Mark Measday <measday@attglobal.net>]

Milt,

It might be gracious to disclose your own interest, if you are so
summarily disclosing others.

For the uninitiated who believed .md implies a resident a Maryland and
who consequently assume with .syr.edu you are a Syrian academic (75% of
the not particularly representative sample  I polled) , I think you
should explain.

You really can't assume droit de seigneur in these matters, especially
given Mr Hooker's apparent honesty and genuineness.

On the polemical side, I  fail to see why you do not applaud the active
use of .md in the spirit of the Louisiana purchase or the tranfer of
Alaska, two other cases where the American entrepreneurial genius
transformed otherwise unused assets.

Best regards,


Mark Measday


(You will find my cv and other biographical detail etc on my website, to
ensure some consistency of logic. I admit we do both commercial and
non-commercial briefings on these matters)

Milton Mueller wrote:

> WG-C, the ICANN working group on new gTLDs, has just received a
> message from one Matt Hooker, arguing passionately "Stop the
> addition of new TLDs."
>
> Mr. Hook is President and Chairman of Net-Speed, Inc.
> http://www.Net-Speed.com/index.html
> Mr. Hooker's resume:
> http://www.S-I-M.com/ResumeMEH.html
>
> If you go to the NetSpeed site you find that Mr. Hooker is
> marketing domain names under the .MD top-level domain. Dot MD is
> a ccTLD that is marketing itself as a generic TLD for medical
> and health-related sites, or for residents of Maryland (the
> two-letter code for that US State is MD).
>
> Mr. Hooker is the registered owner of the domains
> "greatdomains.md" and "discountdrugs.md". He is offering the
> former for sale for $250,000 and the latter for $500,000. He is
> selling other .MD domains for $299/year. The nature of Mr.
> Hooker's interest in new TLDs should be apparent. New TLDs will
> undermine dot MD's special status as a generic TLD, and
> encourage competition.
>
> I don't know how much money Hooker has invested in MD domains,
> but its apparent that his primary interest is in protecting and
> enhancing his little corner on the domain name market.
>
> Inadvertently, perhaps, Mr. Hooker has demonstrated more
> effectively than anyone else why we need to open up the market
> for new TLDs.
>
> I think the Working Group and ICANN needs to be vigilant about
> these kinds of special interest claims as it considers the new
> TLD issue, especially when the claims are made deceptively in
> the name of "consumers."
>
> See below to check who owns various names registered under .MD.
> Indeed, this is an interesting site to visit if you want to see
> how artificial scarcity of TLDs has transformed a country code
> domain into an explicit generic TLD.
> http://www.nic.md/
>
> --
> m i l t o n   m u e l l e r // m u e l l e r @ s y r . e d u
> syracuse university          http://istweb.syr.edu/~mueller/
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