RE: [wg-c] IMPORTANT: CONSENSUS CALL

["Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M." <rod@cyberspaces.org>]

I wish to echo Mr. Walsh's response with regard to the famous Trade mark
issue. I am uncomfortable with the idea that ICANN should "resolve" that
issue anyway. Folks who really think that issue is in need of addressing
should use the proper legislative and legal fora. However, it may take quite
awahile to see how "effective" the anti-cybersquatting legislation will be;
suggesting that the addition of gTLDs should await those efforts could mean
delaying action, not for months, but years. We should all find that kind of
delay unacceptable.



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-wg-c@dnso.org [mailto:owner-wg-c@dnso.org]On Behalf Of
William X. Walsh
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 1999 9:54 PM
To: Rita M. Odin
Cc: wg-c@dnso.org
Subject: Re: [wg-c] IMPORTANT: CONSENSUS CALL



On 16-Dec-1999 Rita M. Odin wrote:
> Before we exacerbate the problems we are experiencing with the current
system by adding
> 6 - 10 new gTLDs, we need to see how effective the UDRP and the
Anti-cybersquatting
> legislation are at addressing some of the concerns raised.  Even if
effective at reducin
> g cybersquatting, these measures are not the end to the problems.  We have
more work to
> do and more issues to hammer out (a famous names policy, a universal and
reliable
> database of registrants, etc.) before I would feel comfortable adding new
gTLDs.

One thing that shared registry for com/net/org has shown, is how easy it is
to implement
a whois solution for yourself.

For example, if you use whois.geektools.com as the whois server you query,
it
automatically queries the whois.internic.net for com/net/org domains, and
then parses to
the correct whois server for the registrar, and outputs the record.  If even
recognizes
the ccTLDs that operate whois servers, so if you type in domain.se, it will
properly
parse that and query the .se whois server.  http://www.geektools.com/ makes
this whois
proxy available free of charge, source included.

For unix command like there are client programs such as BWwhois at
http://www.bw.org/whois
that also parse the output from whois.internic.net to autoforward to the
correct
registrar.

I'd say this is a good solid argument why a universal database of
registrants is not
required.  Tools can easily be made to query the appropriate databases
automatically with
very little work.

On the famous names policy, the courts are pretty much setting a VERY high
standard for
famous mark protection.  I would say it inappropriate to move forward on
that too much
within ICANN at the moment.  Avery-Dennison, Clue.com, etc, have shown that
the famous
mark protection under the law isn't as absolute as the IP constituency would
like it to
be, or would want it to be under ICANN.


--
William X. Walsh - DSo Networks
Email: william@dso.net  Fax:(209) 671-7934