Re: [ga] Ask Vint Cerf: The Road Ahead for Top-Level Domains

["kidsearch" <kidsearch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Comments below

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Auerbach" <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "kidsearch" <kidsearch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 6:04 PM
Subject: Re: [ga] Ask Vint Cerf: The Road Ahead for Top-Level Domains


>
> On Wed, 18 Jan 2006, kidsearch wrote:
>
> > create the tlds. I'm also open to the need for a tld owner to have to
put up
> > a bond or purchase insurance to cover some plan by ICANN or another body
to
> > take over tld management if necessary due to failed business plans.
>
> Would you be willing to say that every business, every enterprise, every
> school, every church, in fact every person, would have to equally post
> some sort of bond guaranting their sucess?

> Clearly you wouldn't.
>
> So, why are TLDs any different?

Again since there are many businesses that are technical in nature that
require a bond and insurance, I don't think it's wrong to expect that of tld
owners. I also think that whether or not we agree on that, any proposal to
ICANN about the matter would carry more weight if those assurances were part
of the plan.

> You can even start an airline or a food service without having to prove
> that you won't go out of business - all you have to prove is that you know
> how to (and do) follow the appropriate safety procedures.

Could you start an airline without providing insurance? Nope.

>
> Hey, even the top of ICANN's pyramid of contracts - ICANN itself - has
> never created a bond or other guarantee that it won't simply go out of
> business and let the pyramid of domain name registration contracts
> crumble.
>
> > understand the arguments against such a failsafe plan, but think no
proposal
> > without such assurances will pass the muster
>
> Talk about shooting low...  ;-)
>
> As soon as we admit even one non-technical criteria then everybody else's
> hobbyhorse can come in the door.  And the first to march through, with the
> band playing, will be the intellectual property industry.
>
> So the answer is this - if you want to impose business longevity
> guarantees, do it through the appropriate mechanism: a legislative
> enactment passed by a national legislature and signed by a national
> executive.  But don't do it under the guise of "technical stability".
>
> > Contractors, plumbers and others have to be bonded and insured.
>
> No, they don't, people are not required to hire bonded or union plumbers,
> contractors, etc.

Karl, in most places if you are not bonded and insured and licensed, you
cannot do jobs that cost more than $300. Surely anyone starting a tld plans
to do more than $300 worth of business.

>
> Only a very few professions (such as medicine or law) have legal
> requirements.  And speaking as a member of one of those professions, I can
> tell you that I don't have to post any sort of bond guranting my business
> continuity to my clients.

Karl, not true. There are leagal requirements for trucking companies and
drivers, limosine services, cargo haulers, real estate agents, insurance
agents, brokers, contractors, insurance appraisers, home inspectors,
building inspectors, and so many more businesses, they are too many to list
here.

>
>   --karl--
>
>