The Commercial and Business Users Constituency

[555]

Very interesting: http://forum.icann.org/lists/4gtld-guide/pdfVsAeL91k6d.pdf

[555]

First link on the bottom of: http://forum.icann.org/lists/bc-gnso/msg01352.html
(Attachment: DAGv4 BC points 1-3.pdf)

[555]

"Until we have achieved a rollout of a substantial number of domains there will be no
evidence to study regarding competition in the domain space. Therefore the BC
recommends that ICANN continue its practice of introducing new gTLDs and IDNs
in discrete, limited rounds."
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"The BC seeks reduced user confusion and reduced duplicative, defensive
registrations forced upon registrants. Therefore, the BC recommends that ICANN
initiate the rollout of new gTLDs with safeguards for an orderly approach to market
differentiation and, if or when necessary, make adjustments in future Applicant
Guidebooks.
2. Translations of Strings from ASCII to Other Scripts or Languages
The Business Constituency continues to draw ICANN’s attention to an omission of
language regarding an appropriate way to address translations of strings from ASCII to other
scripts or languages for community-based applications, along with a reduction in cost for
such applications.
Background
The BC supports community-based gTLDs and IDNs as the optimal way to expand the
name space. The Business Constituency has consistently stated this for 10-years.
Allowing new gTLD community-based applicants the ability to serve their markets with
whichever script a registrant would like to register its (community) domain name, adds
value to the DNS. The Economic Framework notes that “a potentially important source
of differentiation is in the allowable characters in a gTLD…New gTLDs, however, will be
able to use Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) with characters from other
alphabets. IDNs can already be used in some second-level domain names (depending on
the rules of the registry), but extending the character set used in the top level domains
should reduce confusion and difficulty in using the Internet”. (Para. 30)"

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Each community-based applicant should be allowed to increase their utility within
their specific community by having the option to apply for their respective IDNequivalent
TLDs for a nominal additional fee (per IDN or translated equivalent).

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General Comment
A community-based application is inherently one community and a single community
must have one TLD operator to manage its space. The final Applicant Guidebook should
facilitate the ability for community-based gTLDs to offer their respective communities
the option of registering the same string name in any language or script that the registrant
may choose.
Once an applicant has met the technical, financial and operational criteria as detailed in
the final Applicant Guidebook, and has been approved to have its string delegated, asking
a community-based applicant to pay an additional $185,000 for each translation of the
approved string has no justification. Anyway one looks at it; it cannot be justified as cost
recovery.
ICANN should encourage new community-based registry operators to run IDN gTLD
strings, as that is one of the primary purposes for expansion of the gTLD space.

[Drewbert]

Commercial and Business Users Constituency = another branch of the IPC = extra votes for the TM crowd.