Thus spake "Einar Stefferud" <Steflist(_at_)thor(_dot_)nma(_dot_)com>
In case you have not noticed, one possible solution is to eliminate all
TLDs other than .COM, which is the only one that you say so may people
believe exists.
At which point someone will notice that all addresses have a
redundant .COM (because all the other TLDs have been removed, and
so the browsers and mail systems will offer to append (or just assume)
the redundant .COM suffix for you, and voile!...
No, keep the ccTLDs and let each country do with them as they wish. Most
countries have a hierarchical namespace within their ccTLD, though a few are
flat.
Either way, I'll take 250+ flat namespaces (ccTLDs) over one flat namespace
(the root).
COM is a failed experiment and needs to be closed and/or eliminated.
All all solved for the minor cost of forcing all non .COM domain name
owners to find and register a new non-colliding domain name under
.COM!
While international trademark law is a joke at best, each country does have
a framework in place which can be used to resolve conflicts within their own
ccTLD. This is a lot easier than trying to manage a single global namespace
using the WTO's trademark "rules".
S