[At-Large] about amazon and a conversation about ralo

Evan Leibovitch evan at telly.org
Thu Jan 30 21:12:27 UTC 2014


Hi Christopher.

On 30 January 2014 15:39, Christopher Wilkinson
<cw at christopherwilkinson.eu>wrote:

Well, apart from ALAC getting it wrong in that case,
>


I'm happy to have that debate, but would simply note at this point that it
(the debate) has already been going on for years. You might not agree with
the resolution but can at least be aware that this was something that did
not slip through the cracks or avoid careful consideration.

The recentl rulings simply fall consistent with ICANN's long-standing
treatment of generic words as commodities -- a core principle that
certainly pre-dates my arrival in At-Large and is essentially beyond
challenge.



> whether one reads .amazon or .health, the arguments of the so-called ICC
> 'experts' lack conviction.
>


Indeed. In fact the whole episode with .health -- the failure of the
objections that we DID launch -- shows clearly that the ALAC objection
process was "created in order to fail". That the Board would enable us to
launch objections, but then allow the adjudicator to dismiss our right to
have standing in the proceedings, is just insane and indicates our chances
were doomed from the start.



> Such stuff does ICANN no credit.
>

Absolutely agreed.


PS:     The privatisation, through the DNS, of generic and geographical
> terms is wrong in principle.
>


As far as ICANN is concerned, that particular debate was crushed many years
ago. This tenet can't be challenged without shaking the whole organization
to the ground, and there are too many vested interests embedded into the
culture to allow that to happen. ICANN has now become financially dependent
upon the industry it was formed to oversee, and the consequences of that
dependency are all around us.

- Evan



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