[At-Large] At-Large Use of Country and Territory Names as Top Level Domains

[Evan Leibovitch]

Alan,

There are many precedents of how ccTLDs have been used as
pseudo-gTLDs. (.LY, .FM), some deliberately marketed that way (.CO,
.ME, .LA) as well as ccTLDs that *could* have been marketed that way
yet were limited by their registry (.IT and .US come to mind but I'm
sure that readers can think of others.)

The same thing can be done once ccTLD registries are given authority
over the three-letter ISO codes. If a registry operator has a use for,
say .CAN, it can make a pitch to the appropriate operator to use it as
a generic. if the offer is good enough and/or the ccTLD operator has
no specific plans, the registry operator can strike a deal that might
be cheaper and faster than going through the ICANN process. Obviously
deals like this have already been done in two-letter space.

So, none of the "generic-capable" 3-letter ISO codes need go to waste
if the will exists to use them, even if they are first assigned to the
CC operators. Doing it this way eliminates the need for the policing
requirement you indicated.

The alternative is allowing the usual free-for-all, waiting for the
next round and enduring a fairly complete, unmoving and successful set
of GAC objections. Might make this round's objection phase look simple
by comparison.

Why not be proactive on the matter rather than waiting for that?

- Evan



On 23 September 2015 at 21:18, Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca> wrote:
> A couple of thoughts, not in response to any particular message in this
> list.
>
> The concept of the alpha-3 codes being restricted was introduced, somewhat
> out of the blue, in the New gTLD implementation. Some of them are pretty
> recognizable as references to the country/territory, some much less so. A
> few of them would likely to be pretty desirable 3-letter gTLDs.
>
> I could easily live with them being available as gTLDs under the provision
> that they could not be marketed or used as pseudo country codes (So you
> could get GEO for the collectors of the now long-gone General Motors car,
> but not to market as a country-related TLD for Georgia. I have no idea how
> you could policie or enfoce that, or for that matter, decide how some
> 3-letter codes could be made available for generic use and some for real
> country codes.
>
> So although I have a problem restricting what could be good codes for g-use
> when they are unlikely to be used for cc-use, I am not sure it is worth the
> effort to do it.
>
> Alan
>
>
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-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Geneva, CH

Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56