BRS Media asks ICANN for independent review of 2012 community extensions
in plain words
A US company called BRS Media wants ICANN, the group that runs domain names, to check whether some special community web endings are really used by their communities. ICANN has admitted it has no way to take those endings away just because they are not used. The company is also raising concerns about the new round of applications.
Full summary
BRS Media, a US company, has asked ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The nonprofit that coordinates the global DNS and gTLD policy. Full definition of ICANN to commission an independent review of community extensions from the 2012 application round. The review would establish whether the communities behind those extensions actually use them. In July, ICANN acknowledged that it has no process for retiring community extensions because they are little used.
Company founder George Bundy sent a letter dated November 4 to Theresa Swinehart, who oversees domains and strategy at ICANN, with a copy to board chair Tripti Sinha. ICANN published the letter on November 9. Swinehart had replied on July 24 to an earlier April letter, confirming that ICANN can still act against contract breaches. The rules for a community extension are set in Specification 12 of the registry The central database and system of a top-level domain, or loosely the organization that runs it. Full definition of registry agreement and continue to apply after a change of operator.
Bundy says that following the contract does not guarantee that a community is actually served. He wants to know whether ICANN has ever checked what happened after delegation. He also asks ICANN to examine rules for removing community, sponsored and geographic top-level domains that clearly fail their purpose, and says such rules would need clear standards, a fair procedure and protection for existing holders.
Swinehart pointed to the RySG Registries Stakeholder Group The GNSO group that represents gTLD registry operators. Full definition of RySG as the forum for a policy debate. Bundy considers that insufficient, arguing that ICANN ran the program and signed the contracts, so it should be able to judge for itself whether the process worked. Swinehart also said fTLD Registry Services raised similar concerns earlier this year.
As of October, seven community applications were competing in the new round, including .agent, .mcp and .bitcoin. Under the new rules, if the evaluation panel The one or three independent experts who decide a domain dispute. Full definition of panel researches a matter itself or consults experts, it must share the findings with the applicant An organization that has applied to ICANN to run a new gTLD. Full definition of applicant, which then has 30 days to reply.