There are only two weeks left to express your view on applications received by ICANN for the generic top level domain (gTLD) for music .
In 2012, IFACCA partnered with .MUSIC and ART.MUSIC Initiative in submitting an application to the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), to manage the .music domain name. See news item here.
The .MUSIC Initiative is now coordinating an objection against the commercial applicants for the .music domain name, as well as the other ‘community-based’ applicant, Far Further. The reasons for this objection are outlined on the .MUSIC Initiative website http://dotmusic.co/ and also at http://music.us/news.htm .
To show your support, you are invited to sign the objection letter here: http://www.music.us/concerns well before the ICANN closing date of 13 March.
Concerns include:
- Monopoly issues and registration policies that exclude significant portions of the music community from participating or registering their name(s) under the music-themed TLD.
- The absence of enhanced safeguards to protect intellectual property to help reduce piracy
- The absence of an enhanced name selection policy or appropriate verification methods that would decrease cybersquatting and music community costs to protect their brand names
- The absence of a music-only use policy that would positively affect TLD content quality and mitigate reputational damage to community members
- Lack of a neutral TLD operator and multi-stakeholder governance structure representing and serving all music constituents without conflicts of interest or serving publicly-traded companies
- History of activities that negatively affect the rights or interests of the music community, such as benefiting from piracy or malware distribution or any other malicious activity
ICANN has announced that more governments will be posting Early Warnings against applicants next week – see https://gacweb.icann.org/display/gacweb/Governmental+Advisory+Committee.
To see all the applications, and for further information on the process, please visit the ICANN website: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/application-results/strings-1200utc-13jun12-en