Radical Shakeup of Domain Names on Internet

Yesterday, while NASA scientists believe that Mars could support life after analyzing soil samples from their Phoenix Mars Lander mission on Mars . . . . . . life on Earth became more complicated with a radical shake up of the Web . . . the Internet's main regulators voted Thursday to allow the creation of thousands of new Web addresses ending in words like .paris, .perfume, .sports, etc.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which presides over the system, voted unanimously in Paris on Thursday at its annual general meeting to approve new sweeping changes in the network's 25- year-old addressing system. The overhaul is expected to radically change the way users navigate the Internet and has implications for businesses and consumers.

Currently, all web addresses fall under one of some 250 top-level domain names: country or territory domains such as .ca for Canada, .it for Italy, .de for Germany, for example, and descriptions for broad generic categories such as .com for commerce, .org for organizations. Now, the new guidelines could smooth the way for broader names like .sports, and at least three groups are already vying for that name. Several cities are seeking suffixes tied to their names. It could also pave the way for the introduction of a .xxx domain name for adult sites. Backers of that idea have lobbied the ICANN board without success for years.

Under the new system, the Web's 1.3 billion users would be able from 2009 to buy an unlimited number of generic addresses based on common words, brands or company names, cities or proper names. In addition, ICANN also voted to open public comment on allowing addresses to be written in non-English characters from Asian and Arabic languages, as well as Cyrillic characters.

Under the new guidelines, any string of letters would be eligible for consideration but subject to an independent arbitration process to evaluate objections to proposed labels that could be rebuffed on the grounds of "morality or public order," ICANN said.

However, many questions remained unanswered, including the cost to win the rights to one of the new suffixes. Early estimates range from $10,000 (U.S.) to $250,000. The fees would be used to cover the cost of setting up the system. ICANN executives estimate that they have already spent $10-million on the project, a budget they said could rise by an additional $10-million.

ICANN chief executive Paul Twomey said the details would be worked out over the next three or four months, with the changes expected to take effect in the second quarter of 2009. Some participants at the ICANN annual general meeting had voiced concerns about "cybersquatting"--the risk that brand names, for example, could be usurped on the Web.

To avoid chaos, Loic Damilaville, deputy head of the French domain name body, the AFNIC, said the ICANN also adopted a motion designed to "limit the abusive registration of new domain names." ICANN is looking at ways of blocking certain domain names based on security or moral grounds, Damilaville said. Companies with trademarked names would have top claiming rights to their brands, but if there were disputes about generic names--like .sports-- conflicts could be settled by auctions with names doled out to the highest bidders.

» Source: Various news services