[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #235: Can you spare $185, 000? or maybe $500, 000?

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OPLIN 4Cast

OPLIN 4Cast #235: Can you spare $185,000? or maybe $500,000?
June 22nd, 2011

<http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/icannlogo_sm.png>Last 
weekend, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 
announced a really big decision that will have a huge effect on the 
Internet. You have probably heard about it. ICANN is responsible, among 
other things, for the management of top-level domain (TLD) names, such 
as .com and .org, and they have decided to allow organizations to 
establish "generic" top-level domains (gTLDs) named after themselves, 
such as .google or .coke. Will we see some library try to grab the 
.library domain? Maybe, but there are a few reasons why this might not 
happen. Aside from the considerable application fee, securing and 
maintaining a gTLD will be a big burden on an organization, and a 
commitment that shouldn't be undertaken without expectation of a strong 
return on investment.

    * New Net addresses mean new trademark issues
      <http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20072470-264/new-net-addresses-mean-new-trademark-issues/>
      (CNET/Stephen Shankland) "ICANN will accept applications from
      registries that want to operate new top-level domains from January
      12, 2012 to April 12, 2012. It's not for the faint of heart:
      There's an application fee of $185,000, it costs $25,000 a year to
      operate the registry, and other fees are possible, too. Those fees
      are very significant. Trademark holders wanting to protect their
      intellectual property might feel obliged to try to set up a
      registry of their own to ward off a new class of cybersquatters.
      And in some cases, rights to a TLD registry might be decided
      through an auction, which potentially could increase costs in an
      unpredictable way."
    * ICANN approves generic top-level domains
      <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/icann_approves_generic_top-level_domains_new_era_o.php>
      (ReadWriteWeb/Dan Rowinski) "ICANN is providing safeguards to ward
      off mass cybersquatting. The Applicant Guidebook
      <http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/dag-en.htm> has gone
      through seven significant revisions since 2008 that incorporated
      1,000 or so comments from the public. The evaluation procedures
      <http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/evaluation-procedures-clean-30may11-en.pdf>
      [pdf] provide for background screening of pre-applicants that
      measure business history and look for history of cybersquatting.
      It will conduct string-similarity reviews to determine if the
      domain is like anything else currently on the Internet and assess
      the potential security risks of creating a new TLD."
    * Icann increases web domain suffixes
      <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13835997> (BBC News)
      "Companies and organisations seeking one of the new gTLDs will
      have to meet high technical standards, according to Bruce Tonkin,
      chief strategy officer at Melbourne IT, a domain registry service.
      'You need IT robustness and you need intellectual property
      protections beyond what is available in the dot com space. You
      have to have a 24/7 abuse team. You have to have mechanisms where
      a trademark holder has first right to get their name,' he said."
    * New gTLDs will create tens of thousands of new jobs
      <http://www.circleid.com/posts/new_gtlds_will_create_tens_of_thousands_new_jobs/>
      (CircleID/Johnny Du) "It has been estimated that the typical gTLD
      application will cost approximately $500,000. [...] That money
      does not disappear into a vacuum, it's spent on technical
      consulting, building out new information systems, recruiting
      attorneys and marketing specialists. Advertising agencies, auction
      houses, intellectual property consultancies, infrastructure
      providers, software developers, hardware manufacturers, and other
      business services will be needed, creating more jobs."

*/OPLIN Fact:/*

No, OPLIN will /not/ be applying for the .oplin top-level domain.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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