May 13, 2000
Dear DNSO and ICANN:
Recently, I saw on the NBC national news that over 93% of all words in the Webster's Dictionary have been registered as domain names. No wonder it is impossible to find a meaningful domain name anymore. Now I understand why meaningful domain names are selling for millions of dollars.
The Internet community is doubling every 6 to 8 months! This chronic shortage of domain names is at a critical stage. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE AND SOON!
I like the idea of creating between six-to-ten new top level domains as an initial starting point. This would help to alleviate the desperate lack of meaningful domain names currently available while providing a manageable new environment to evaluate the impact of these new TLDs on the Internet community.
I like the proposed names .web, .firm, .shop, .info, .nom, .rec, and .arts.
These new TLDs are meaningful names, and span a broad variety of common uses.
Much of the overflow of demand for meaningful domain names has already spilled over into these new TLDs.
I THINK THAT IT IS ONLY FAIR FOR REGISTRARS WHO HAVE HAD THE FORESIGHT TO TRADEMARK A TLD, TO BE ABLE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OVER IT. This is the Internet self governing way. Many of these new TLDs have emerged out of the "grass roots" in popularity and already have hundreds of thousands of preregistrations. These preregistrations represent a grasping of the Internet community to find meaningful domain names for their Internet ventures. These Internet ventures represent the verifiable future and growth of the net!
Trademark laws are the law of our land and should be upheld. I personally, have only preregistered new TLDs that have their extensions trademarked - otherwise what guarantee would I have that any Tom, Dick or Harry would pop on the seen one day, start a domain registry, and resell a domain already protected under trademark law? With more than one preregistered TLD havoc would ultimately ensue unless there is some way to determine who has legal right to that name - the answer is that it first belongs to the entity which holds the trademark.
I fully support Image Online design and their .WEB TLD.
.WEB is my favorite of the new TLDs - the name itself evokes Internet. I feel
that it should be added to the Internet's Domain Name System as soon as possible
and that they alone should have first and foremost rights to the .WEB name since
they had the foresight to trademark this name and establish a legal right to it
well before it became so popular.
Sincerely,
Todd P. Harrington
Programmer/Analyst Bear Stearns & Co.
11846 Lark Song Loop
Riverview, FL 33569
(813) 677-7117
harringtons@msn.com