Just a quick note to let you know that my first post is up on CircleId.com
CircleID.com is a great publication with contributions from many different people throughout the domain space but typically not domainers.
The publication chats a lot about ICANN and public policy issues and has a large readership.
I have had it in my RSS feed for quite a while and was asked to write a post on it a while back.
Yesterday I though of a perfect post for that audience entitled ”
Why the Lawsuit Against .XXX Maybe the Best Sales Tool Ever For New gTLD Applicants
CircleID.com is one of those publications that requires anyone that wants to comment to sign up with “real information” and therefore tends not to get the type of comment level we see over here.
Maybe the court will see that it’s not a monopoly since any computer user can choose whether or not to use an ICANN-controlled root.
Analogies to the Yellow Pages might be helpful.
Certain companies tried to protect a monopoly on printing and distributing telephone directories and they lost. Courts have said anyone can print a version of the Yellow Pages, i.e. a business telephone directory.
A list of IP numbers for business websites is no different.
The list does not have to include .xxx websites. It is simply a matter of which directory the user chooses to use.
ICANN (new gtlds) and .xxx, and consultants that advertise in the form of articles on CircleID, are pushing their luck. ICANN”s monopoly is an illusory one. It relies on the fact that users do not understand they have choice. And that state of affairs is not guaranteed to persist to infinity.
The more aggressive ICANN and reistries like .xxx get in the quest to exploit this ignorance the more they increase the chances that the veil will be lifted. Maybe it will happen in court.
Maybe not in this lawsuit. Maybe in the next one.
The merchants of FUD are salivating.
Too bad browsers don’t have the ability to change DNS on the fly.