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09|17|2009 10:53 am EDT

Republican Lawmakers Oppose New TLDs

by Chad Kettner in Categories: Up to the Minute

Lamar Smith and Howard Coble, two of the House Judiciary Committee’s top Republicans, have sent a message to ICANN to express concerns about the proposed introduction of numerous top level domains – stating that vast expansion and absence of price caps in the new registry deals could hurt business owners and consumers in the United States.

In their letter to Rod Beckstrom, the CEO of ICANN, Smith and Coble stated that they were worried about the addition of numerous TLDs and that they could carry “serious negative consequences” due to cyber-squatting, fraud, and overall confusion in the online marketplace.

Additionally, the two believe that the absence of price caps in the new registry deals could mean that legitimate business owners would need to pay a premium whenever registering or renewing their domain names.

Richard Tindal, senior VP at eNom disagrees. “There is only so much Internet traffic and so many cyber-squatter dollars available at any given point in time. Doubling the number of [domains] will not double the amount of cybersquatting.”

[via NextGov.com]

What are your thoughts? Will the new TLDs benefit business owners by improving the quality and relevancy of their domain names – or will it hurt businesses and consumers by creating confusion in the marketplace?

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  • http://www.icann.org Rod Beckstrom

    I can confirm that ICANN has read the letter with the various pertinent issues raised by the Committee and intends to respond in the tight time frame provided.

  • RonMunson

    My thoughts are that domains should only be released if they present viable usability. Coming out with .net, .biz etc provides no benefit since they are just duplicates of .com. It ruins the domain system and confuses internet users.

    .com, .asia, .eu and the country level codes are all unique and important to the domain system.

    This being said however, I would see that restricting domains such as the recently released .tel would be disasterous. Another domain name on the horizon that has a unique usability is .radio which I also look forward to its release.

    One last note. Although I haven’t invested a penny into a .mobi domain name, I would find it a shame if name like this was blocked. It does have a unique usability in that it represents sites built for small screens. Whether this is important in the future is the question.

  • http://DavidGreen.com/ David

    The new tld’s will likely result in lots of negative overall effect dilution to the current tld’s. Even more troubling in my view are no price caps on renewals. I can easily see the registry charging a renewal fee based on the traffic or perceived popularity of a website, such as 100′s of dollars or more per year, possibly even 1000′s.

  • http://dnURLs.com Kevin M.

    Finally, a republican viewpoint that we can agree on!!

    **”Richard Tindal, senior VP at eNom disagrees. “There is only so much Internet traffic and so many cyber-squatter dollars available at any given point in time. Doubling the number of [domains] will not double the amount of cybersquatting.”**

    Spoken like a true ‘profit salavating’ registrar, just ‘waiting’ for the doors to open, and the ‘this could be it!’ newbie domainers flocking to ‘speculate, speculate, speculate!’

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  • Idiot Domainer

    Pretty rich for Richard Tindal at Enom to call out about cybersquatter dollars. Should we post the domain names that this douchehole’s company owns and has just taken over when the domain expires ?

  • Bruno

    I like to douche sister hole! Idiot domain guy, show us the douchehole names!! Me think Adam Stronger owns Doucheholes.com/net/org/us. We own Doucheholes.kz.

  • ICANN TOO

    @Rod Beckstrom, if you unleash the price cap demon you may as well paint a target on your forehead. People will hold you and the other ICANN scum personally responsible. If you start screwing with people’s livelihoods there’s a good chance a lot of people will start screwing with yours.

    Just something for you to think over at night.

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  • jolly
  • http://DomainAuctionCleaner.com Drew

    We live in a crazy mixed-up world when Republicans are calling for more regulation and not screaming “free markets!”.

    Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

    The silence from the Dem’s is deafening.

  • http://stumblemusic.com stumblemusic on sedo

    i agree on the overall confusion part. I mean, how many extensions will someone need to know, and remember?

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  • Hodges

    “Coming out with .net, .biz etc provides no benefit since they are just duplicates of .com.”

    .biz is the same as .com, but .net has a different intended purpose. It is not just a duplicate. .org has a different intended purpose as well.

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