In article <51E368F9(_dot_)70404(_at_)dougbarton(_dot_)us> you write:
On 07/12/2013 02:40 PM, John R Levine wrote:
Point your browser at http://dk/ or http://tm/ and see what happens.
As John points out, the ccTLDs are already doing this. ICANN has no
authority to tell the ccTLDs NOT to do it, thus restricting the gTLDs
from doing it (via their contract with ICANN) would arguably be "unfair"
in any number of parameters, including (possibly) legal ones.
No, you completely misunderstand my point.
If you try out the existing dotless TLDs, you will find out that they
sort of work for web pages, only because very few sites have hosts
named "dk" or "ai", and mail to them works very badly if at all. So
there is some actual data we could cite about how badly they work, to
support the hand waving in all the anti-dotless documents to date.
It's silly to think that "fairness" between ccTLDS and gTLDs matters
at all. For one thing, gTLDs have for over a decade followed rules
that don't apply to ccTLDs, such as accepting registrations only
indirectly, and publishing WHOIS about all registered names. For
another, anyone who's looked through the new TLD applicant guidebook
would know that every applicant has agreed to page after page of legal
releases in ICANN's favor, and that dotless domains are specifically
forbidden without a waiver from ICANN, which ICANN can grant or not at
its discretion.
The only reason this has come up is that one (1) of the 1900 new TLD
applications has asked for a waiver to do a dotless domain, and that
applicant happens to be Google applying for .SEARCH. ICANN can just
say no. Or they might not even have to, since Google's is only one of
four competing applicants for .SEARCH, and there is no reason to
assume that they would necessarily be the winner at the end of the
negotiations.
R's,
John