Re: [gtld-com] Regarding seeking public commentonthe committee'sdraft

["Milton Mueller" <Mueller@syr.edu>]

Sorry to bother you all again. But Danny Younger has 
brought to my attention a discussion paper that 
addresses the IDN - TLD issues. 

Discussion Paper on Non-ASCII Top-Level Domain Policy Issues
http://www.icann.org/committees/idn/non-ascii-tld-paper-13jun02.htm

The paper provides a balanced view of the pros and cons. 
I reproduce below the most relevant parts (seems that we
have been reinventing the wheel on the Council gTLD-committee.)

====

"4.  EXISTING SPONSORED gTLDs

Definition:

By "semantic association with an existing sponsored gTLD," we mean a 
non-ASCII TLD string that to a typical reader would be clearly linked to an 
existing ASCII sponsored TLD.  Currently, that list includes .aero, .coop, 
and .museum.  For purposes of this paper, the category arguably includes .edu and .int also.  A example of a non-ASCII TLD semantically associated with .museum would be the TLD string consisting of the Hangul (Korean) characters meaning "museum" in Korean.

The issue with this group is twofold: Firstly should existing registry 
sponsors have a right to TLD strings in non-ASCII characters with the same semantic meaning as their ASCII TLD string?  In other words, should they be given a preference, or be treated the same as any other proposer? Secondly, if one language variant is approved for a given sponsored TLD does this automatically imply a right to all other language variants? 

Advantages of incumbent preference:

Giving a preference for equivalent non-ASCII strings to existing ASCII 
sponsored registries would be simple, and somewhat logical.  Once ICANN has concluded that a given sponsor is an appropriate proxy and policymaker on behalf of the community to be served by the TLD, it could logically be considered to have equivalent legitimacy across non-ASCII TLD strings as well.  This might also lead to less confusion among users, in that 
registration rules and registries policies would be consistent. 

Disadvantages of incumbent preference:

The selection of TLD registries is complicated.  A representative sponsor for an ASCII TLD may not be best for all communities, particularly where the scope of a given script's use is highly localized.  For that reason, it may be best to place no hard rights or prohibitions on the allocation of TLD 
strings with semantic association to existing sponsored TLDs, treating them as any other new TLD, open to any proposer, but also allowing the existing ASCII TLD registry sponsors to present proposals for equivalent non-ASCII TLDs, with relevant justification for their role. 
Each TLD string should be treated differently, and should be open for 
proposals to any potential registry operator that can establish the basic 
requirements for a sponsored TLD, including support within the community to be served.  At the same time, it may be possible for a single organization to demonstrate its legitimacy and capacity to serve as a global coordinating registry for a given term (i.e., "museum") as to all non-ASCII strings consisting of characters that have the equivalent semantic meaning in some language. 

5.  EXISTING UNSPONSORED gTLDs

Definition:

By "semantic association with existing unsponsored gTLDs", we mean a 
non-ASCII TLD string that to a typical reader would be clearly linked to the 
an existing unsponsored ASCII gTLD, such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, or .name.

Here again, the issue is whether to give any advantage to the current 
registry operators of the existing ASCII unsponsored gTLDs.

Advantages of incumbent preference:

There appear to be few notable advantages, other than for the existing 
registry operators themselves.  It should be noted that several current operators of gTLD registries have pointed to a range of arguable advantages, from their perspective, including: ease of transition, single-point-of-registration services for registrants, consistency and stability of applicable registration rules and policies, and minimization of consumer confusion between semantically-equivalent ASCII and non-ASCII TLDs.  

Disadvantages of incumbent preference:

Given the generic nature of the terms at issue, and the wide-ranging 
complexities of meaning across languages, it would be extremely difficult to determine which non-ASCII words and abbreviations should qualify for the preference; indeed, it is not clear why the preference would not also 
logically extend to ASCII TLD strings, such as "company" for the .com 
registry operator.

The principles of registry-level competition and geographic distribution of 
registries both argue strongly against giving any preference to existing 
ASCII gTLD registry operators.  Such a preference would promote market 
concentration, rather than competition."