[EURO-Discuss] Bulgarian application for IDN ccTLD refused?

[Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond]

Adam,

Le 30/05/2010 14:29, Adam Peake a écrit :
> Interesting thread on the civil society Internet governance list about
> Bulgaria's requerst for a fast track ccTLD being refused.  Apparently
> .бг was considered likely to cause confusion with .br (Brazil.)  See
> the archive at <http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/arc/governance/2010-05/msg00143.html>
>
> Can anyone from ISOC Bulgaria comment?
>
> I don't really understand, on a lot of levels.
>
>   

I've been following this discussion too - and noticed the usual suspects
re: IDNA coming into the debate.
Whilst most of the people immediately linked to .bg (including Daniel
Kalchev) have voiced their opision, I am awaiting a note from Veni
Markovski on this.
The issue of visual confusion is a really tough one to rule on. This is
why Alan and I had fought hard to *avoid* visual confusion (and phonetic
confusion too!) to be part of the Trademark Clearinghouse etc.
As for IDNs - this issue is likely to be commonplace. One thing I always
remember is that no matter what we all think of re: avoiding visual
similarity, there's always going to be someone who will find a loophole,
or a way to get around it.
It already exists within ASCII. l vs 1 vs I etc.
Kind regards,

Olivier

-- 
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
http://www.gih.com/ocl.html