Community or Standard?

I strongly believe there is a serious “breach” in the Applicant Guidebook: I checked the scoring, I checked the possible objections, I am aware of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) early warning but I really could not find ...

...how ICANN is going to avoid Community applications to be submitted as Standard ones.

The role of ICANN is to offer a solution to launching new generic Top-Level Domains, it is no party in saying whether a new gTLD is a Community or not. It offers a procedure in which Objections and the GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee) Early Warning* are a solution but it does not offer a final mechanism to block a Community from becoming open to anyone if Objections and GAC fail to do their job.

The example

I think .WINE is a good example of this as there is a strong community behind wine and these domain names should highly be dedicated to wine web sites users worldwide: shouldn’t they?

Community applications protect domain name registrants from Standard applications which are “open to all”. A community application also has a lot of power to reduce cybersquatting because a Registrant (the person who buys a domain name) must follow more restrictive registration rules.

Shouldn’t a wine company be allowed to access to a .wine domain name in priority, even after a Landrush period when domain names can be accessed to anybody?

Of course it should but it probably won’t because it is more lucrative to go “Standard” for the applicant rather than “Community”. It also takes less time for the Standard applicant to have a Return On Investment as the validation process to acquire a domain name from a Community application can take longer.

Questions and answers

A few questions here:

• What if there is one standard .WINE application with no objections: will it be accepted?
• What if there is one standard .WINE application with no GAC early warning: will it be accepted?
• Will it end in an auction if there are two .WINE Standard applications?
• Will it cost “much more” to this Community to protect itself when its domain names are open to all?

One answer here: yes it will…

The loser

The result of this is that the end user (the Registrant) is the loser because whatever mechanisms are put in place, there are none which will block such “accidents” from happening: there is absolutely no reason why a Community should be exposed to more cybersquatting and domaining because there is no border line:

1. Objections allow to object only, they are no guarantee a keyword representing a Community won’t be allowed as a Standard application.
2. “The GAC Early Warning” is just a warning. Is the GAC early warning going to be powerful enough to block a private company to acquire a Community string and allow anyone to register its domain names?
3. Do I want a generic .wine domain name to be sold as a “Premium domain name” to a domainer so it then blocks a member of this Community to have a good and interesting use of it? It has happened before and it is going to happen again when Community applications are accepted as Standard ones.

So now what?

If a well represented Community has no money to protect itself, nor it knows how to protect itself, nor it understands the complex Applicant Guidebook, I am afraid the only solution left is going to be the same as usual: $$$, cybersquatting, domaining…

Oh I forgot: Public Comments may be a solution but will they really be taken into account if massive organizations apply for multiple strings in standard applications?
Will “someone” dare to do something if it is revealed as a common practice on the first round of applications?

Won’t it just be easier to just say: “It’s OK, it sticks to the rule”.

Probably…

* Concurrent with the 60-day comment period, ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) may issue a GAC Early Warning notice concerning an application. This provides the applicant with an indication that the application is seen as potentially sensitive or problematic by one or more governments.