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February 27, 2007
Bad idea of the day
Ars has a piece on ICANN ( they govern the internet for the most part ) looking at passing ordinance that would put them in a position to deny web address that they consider "against public policy". This seems like a colossally bad idea to me. If a community establishes a standard and wants to uphold it, that's fine but in a community as big as the internet, who establishes that standard? Are we talking lowest common denominator? If so, that can be very low ( remember that little dutch cartoon that caused a fuss ?) in some areas compared to others.
This seems like a ring to stay out of if I'm a government organization of any type, especially one that a good chunk of the world thinks is in the pocket of the US government.
Thoughts?
Clarification: this is primarily for the .edu, .com and .org top level domains I believe. I'm sure the country level ones would have their governance left up to the respective country and the .xxx domain, should it ever be allowed to exist, would likely have free reign.
Posted by bucjos at February 27, 2007 06:25 PM
Comments
It's not for any existing top level domains, but about creation of new ones (if someone wanted a .crime for example). While the reasoning behind it isn't great, it'd almost be good to see them saying no new ones other than countries, as then each country determines what's under their area rather than fighting about what should be allowed when there's no authority but everyone wants a say. The problem with that is if things were obviously US (under .us space) rather than somewhat ambiguous (the current tlds that are effectively US but not necessarily), the government would already be meddling more than they are now.
Posted by: Jeremy at February 27, 2007 09:58 PM
I'm such a spaz. I read that quickly and I thought it was going to be for actual addresses, not domains. Mooney, as always, you are the even-handed voice of reason to my ADD monkey boy reactionary posts. Thanks brother.
Posted by: JoeBuck at February 28, 2007 10:28 AM