[ALAC] 7 Aug letter from Senate Judiciary Committee
Evan Leibovitch
evan at telly.org
Wed Aug 22 20:18:24 UTC 2012
Good letter ... almost. It has good intentions but broadly misses the mark,
and as such as not as helpful as we would hope.
- The call for more resources for compliance is helpful in that it
indicates attention to the issue, but it also reveals a simplistic view
that suggests merely throwing money at a solution will solve the corporate
culture impediments.
- The demand that some of the excess revenue from the application
process will be vigorously fought by the domain industry which, in seeing
the gTLD program as "cost recovery" based, will surely want the excess
going back to them.
- I'm still wary of dependence on a trademark clearinghouse, and its
potential to overzealously lock away common words that also happen to be
trade names (ie, "apple", "shell", "bell") or even that are trade names in
some countries but generic words in others (ie, "aspirin"). I still
maintain that if a TCH is too onerous for WIPO to do, that should be a sign
to ICANN.
- On the topic of public comment on the gTLD program, the congressmen
are horribly misinformed. They seem to think that allowing the public more
time -- and more publicity -- to comment on the program will accomplish
anything, and that the Independent Objector has far more authority than he
does. Almost all of the comments so far have focused not on the strings
being applied for, but on the potential use of the TLDs ... which is
completely outside ICANN's ability to control (let alone judge).
On the balance, I appreciate the supportive warnings that not all is rosy
in gTLD-land, but I really hoped that a letter signed by members of both
houses of Congress would indicate a better grasp of the issues. Logic 101
suggests that if your premises are flawed, your conclusions can't be
trusted. And that's exactly the case here.
- EVan
On 22 August 2012 15:30, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> please be so kind to find a link to a recent letter from Senator Patrick
> Leahy, Chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, to ICANN's interim
> CEO & President, Akram Atallah.
>
>
> http://www.leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/8-7-12%20Letter%20from%20Senate%20and%20House%20Judiciary%20Committees.pdf
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Olivier
>
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>
--
Evan Leibovitch
Toronto Canada
Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56
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