Re: [wg-c] Re: nine principles for domain names v5

["Philip Sheppard" <philip.sheppard@aim.be>]

John,
your analysis of the contradiction between differentiation and competition
is accurate - if you interpret each one as an absolute.

Competition should mean that Adidas would indeed have a choice of .sport or
.shoes or whatever it wants. But the essence of true competition is not
offering the same product to the market as the first mover but offering a
product that has "value added". And part of that value added will be
differentiation.

However, this is a fine point. The phrasing of the competition principle is
"foster competition" not something more proscriptive such as "create
competition" .This recognises your contradiction of undifferentiated
competition, but endorses competition from an expanding set of domain names.
It also seeks to caution against creating a small set of new monopolies.