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

[Milton Mueller <mueller@syr.edu>]

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/