But you did not cover the critical issue; you have not distinguished between www.sex and www.sex.com:
"the problem. And it extends to words and concepts that weren't created by anyone living today. Sex, love, laughter, babies, books, songs, cars, poetry, etc. These things shouldn't be TLDs, they're too important, too basic to life. Not the kinds of things any company, for crying out loud, should be able to claim to own."
Why is it such a tragedy if poetry is a TLD but poetry.com is no problem? Why is unthinkable that a company could own .poetry but no problem if the same company owns poetry.com?
Okay I'll cover it here (although I did elsewhere in this thread).
Maybe those domains shouldn't have been issued, but they were. And that's why you want to deal with these things before you get an installed base, not after.
You did not cover it...What is the harm of having a .poetry TLD? Or what are the personal+societal costs of the private/exclusive registration of poetry.com?
But you are right we should deal with these things before there is a large user base. So let's sort it out now and come up with a solid framework for what alphanumeric strings are acceptable. What are the rules? Which alpha-numeric strings are too important to let a company own?
My name is Doug, can I register .doogie? Can I register .poetree? Is .oybt acceptable, even if it is rot13(blog)?
It's simple, really. A domain name like poetry.com is as accessible to the average person as it is to a company. A TLD on the other hand is something you need to take out a mortgage to own.
The difference is in the democracy of it all. Acquiring domain names is a very democratic process even if you take into account squatting and other shenanigans. Scrounge up ten bucks and a web connection and it's yours. TLDs aren't even close. It's a total plutocracy and ICANN seems totally unapologetic about it while the companies snatching them up look ridiculous when they put a line in their proposal about how their ownership of some random word as a TLD is in our, the users, best interest.
How can anyone overlook that? It's practically beating us over the head, taunting us.
And how many mortgages do you suppose it would take to buy poetry.com? It's not even close to accessible to the average person. Maybe if the average person saved every penny they earn for a lifetime, they could buy poetry.com.
Yes but domain names that are unclaimed all start at the same price. Now poetry.com is unattainable but before it was bought anyone who wanted it had an equal chance. TLDs are starting their life as unattainable unlike domains which only end up that way later.
Comments
But you did not cover the critical issue; you have not distinguished between www.sex and www.sex.com:
"the problem. And it extends to words and concepts that weren't created by anyone living today. Sex, love, laughter, babies, books, songs, cars, poetry, etc. These things shouldn't be TLDs, they're too important, too basic to life. Not the kinds of things any company, for crying out loud, should be able to claim to own."
Why is it such a tragedy if poetry is a TLD but poetry.com is no problem? Why is unthinkable that a company could own .poetry but no problem if the same company owns poetry.com?
Okay I'll cover it here (although I did elsewhere in this thread).
Maybe those domains shouldn't have been issued, but they were. And that's why you want to deal with these things before you get an installed base, not after.
You did not cover it...What is the harm of having a .poetry TLD? Or what are the personal+societal costs of the private/exclusive registration of poetry.com?
But you are right we should deal with these things before there is a large user base. So let's sort it out now and come up with a solid framework for what alphanumeric strings are acceptable. What are the rules? Which alpha-numeric strings are too important to let a company own?
My name is Doug, can I register .doogie? Can I register .poetree? Is .oybt acceptable, even if it is rot13(blog)?
Doug, just leave the whole thing alone and worry about solving real problems not invented ones.
It's simple, really. A domain name like poetry.com is as accessible to the average person as it is to a company. A TLD on the other hand is something you need to take out a mortgage to own.
The difference is in the democracy of it all. Acquiring domain names is a very democratic process even if you take into account squatting and other shenanigans. Scrounge up ten bucks and a web connection and it's yours. TLDs aren't even close. It's a total plutocracy and ICANN seems totally unapologetic about it while the companies snatching them up look ridiculous when they put a line in their proposal about how their ownership of some random word as a TLD is in our, the users, best interest.
How can anyone overlook that? It's practically beating us over the head, taunting us.
Well this is a separate argument than above but I will bite:
"Acquiring domain names is a very democratic process even if you take into account squatting and other shenanigans."
Since when?
But more importantly how am I harmed by the new TLDs?
And how many mortgages do you suppose it would take to buy poetry.com? It's not even close to accessible to the average person. Maybe if the average person saved every penny they earn for a lifetime, they could buy poetry.com.
Yes but domain names that are unclaimed all start at the same price. Now poetry.com is unattainable but before it was bought anyone who wanted it had an equal chance. TLDs are starting their life as unattainable unlike domains which only end up that way later.