[wg-c] NY Times Online 3/9

[Justin McCarthy <justinmac@uswest.net>]

          March 9, 2000


          ICANN May Add New Internet Suffixes


          A.P. INDEXES: TOP STORIES | NEWS | SPORTS |
BUSINESS | TECHNOLOGY | ENTERTAINMENT


          Filed at 3:45 p.m. EST

          By The Associated Press

          CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- With Internet domain names
ending in ''.com''
          running short, the international organization
responsible for Web
          addresses on Thursday considered allowing the use
of new suffixes.

          Increasing the supply of domain names could have
far-reaching
          implications for Internet business and the
protection of intellectual
          property rights. As choice domain names become
scarce, some are being
          resold by entrepreneurs for large sums of money.

          ``There should be new generic top-level domain
names,'' said Jonathan
          Weinberg, who heads one of two naming committees
set up last year by
          the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers, or ICANN.

          If ICANN, which functions as an Internet oversight
board, decides to
          increase the range of Net addresses, suffixes such
as ''.info'' and ''.shop''
          could be added.

          ``Expanding the names will diminish the artificial
scarcity of names, create
          opportunities for entities that have been shut out
under the current name
          structure and promote electronic commerce,''
Weinberg told the ICANN
          board of directors and some 300 participants who
gathered for the
          organization's two-day board meeting in Egypt.

          Board member Esther Dyson said she expected the
two committees to
          submit proposals to the organization's 19
directors on Friday, but that no
          movement on the issue was expected before the next
ICANN meeting in
          Japan in mid-July.

          ICANN has been looking into the introduction of
new names for more
          than a year. It has moved slowly as it grappled
with questions about
          trademark ownership and other commercial
implications.

          Weinberg suggested ICANN start by introducing six
to 10 new domain
          names, and then pause to evaluate. He said his
committee, while agreeing
          on the need to add new domain names, had yet to
reach a consensus on
          how to select them.

          Mike Palage, speaking for an ICANN committee
investigating
          commercial implications, said adequate trademark
protection must be in
          place before new names are introduced.

          Companies ``are concerned that there will be a
whole new round of
          cybersquatting, that big trademark owners then
have to go out and fight
          court battles around the world,'' another ICANN
director, Jonathan
          Cohen, said earlier this week. ``The question is
what, if any, protection
          can be offered.''

          The U.S. government is shifting administration of
the domain-name
          system to ICANN, which was established in 1998.

          As ICANN's authority grows, questions about who
controls it have
          arisen. The 19-member board is considering
elections for nine of its spots
          this fall with indirect input from 6,000 Internet
users who applied for free
          membership. But critics question the fairness of
the representation and
          selection process.

          ------

          On the Net: Official ICANN site:
http://www.icann.org

          Independent site run by ICANN critics:
http://www.icannwatch.org



        Ask questions, give answers and tell other readers
what you know.
        Join Abuzz, a new knowledge network from The New
York Times.