[NA-Discuss] IMPORTANT: US Senate hearings on new gTLDs

[John R. Levine]

> Now... I don't know if one has to be a US citizen to testify

The US Senate can invite anyone they want to testify.  They can also 
compel US citizens to testify whether they want to or not.  But you don't 
sign up, they invite you.  I was invited once, long ago, for a hearing 
about adware.

> Further to this, I would like to raise the issue as an agenda item on
> Monday's NARALO call and I would like us to consider letting the Committee
> know that there is indeed a group within ICANN that exists to provide the
> voice of Internet end-users,

There is, but of course there's the chronic issue of how much the ALAC 
represents the world's users rather than individual vanity domain 
registrants.

The chair of the FTC (analogous to the Competition Bureau) isn't too 
thrilled about the new domains, either:

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-08/web-name-expansion-could-be-disaster-ftc-chairman-says.html

Regards,
John Levine, johnl at iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly