Re: [wg-c] straw vote -- question one results & call for votes on

[Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>]

Ross Wm. Rader wrote:

> I don't much care what the FCC does. Where I come from, radio and tv
> licenses are *applied* for and controlled by the government. they can be
> revoked or issued elsewhere pretty much at the drop of a hat. And we still
> have radio and tv stations.

What country do you live in?I doubt seriously that this is true of any country
that has a
broadcasting industry worthy of the name.

Broadcast licenses in the US are renewable for fixed periods,
7 years I think. There is a *very* strong presumption of
renewal -- you have to search very hard to find ones
that are not renewed. The implementation of "postcard"
renewal in the 1980s, plus the ability of stations to sell
the license, makes recouping investment fairly secure.

This tendency to pooh-pooh the investment security
issue makes me very suspicious.

Surely everyone understands that the biggest problem
a new gTLD will face is marketing. Who is going to
invest in marketing with a 1-year time line? IF you are
assuming that the registry is completely detached from
the registrar and thus doesn't care about marketing,
then you are making assumptions that shouldn't be
made. As per Kevin's proposal, I thought we were
moving to a heterogeneous model, which is the
*only* proposal that will ever command
enough assent from this group to be put into a report.

--
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/