Re: [ga] Karl's comments at the 2003 Senate hearings on allocation systems
How does one measure the "demand for new TLDs"? Easy, open the door that those who want one can get one. If nobody shows up, demand is low. If a lot of people show up then demand is high. We know for certain that even with a prodgious hurdle of a $50,000 application fee, plus heavy contractual obligations, that 47 groups applied in year 2000. And there are lots of TLD names in the competing roots (like my .ewe). Why should it matter if your clients get confused? Should you or I or anyone be blocked from putting out a new brand of laundry soap because some people might find it confusing to see another brightly colored box on the shelves of their local supermarket? And should you or I or anyone be denied the opportunity to create a new gasoline hybrid automobile for the marketplace based on your client's feeling that they'd rather have a hydrogen powered BMW? The kind of mentality of a priori economic and marketplace engineering is completely at odds with a free an open marketplace and is instead a return to the kind of Five Year Plans found in the old USSR. --karl--
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