information Are the new gtlds nothing more than a shakedown ?

[equity78]

Kieren Mc Carthy is out with an article on TheRegister.co.uk that highlights the keynote speeches from Namescon today. Mc Carthy highlighted talks from Kurt Pritz (Domain Name Association), Fiona Alexander (NTIA) and Jennifer Wolfe from Wolfe Domains.

The headline is what drew me in, “Dot-word domains ‘a shakedown, designed to get money out of people”

But with power comes responsibility, two keynoters, Fiona Alexander of the US government’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Kurt Pritz of the Domain Name Association (DNA), pointed out.

“One of the many challenges of this [new gTLDs] program has been the negative public perception of the domain name industry,” noted Alexander.

“Accusations of cybersquatting and brand shakedowns through defensive registrations have done nothing to generate trust or good will. Only you all can change that perception.”

Read more at:

http://www.domaincrunch.com/are-the-new-gtlds-nothing-more-than-a-shakedown/

 

[Super Software]

IMO, nTLDs are not responsible any more than existing gTLDs squatters. ICANN needs to invest more in marketing and its outreach programs in terms of making it easy for individual domain industry professionals and companies to participate in policy decisions. Simply saying "jump in and participate" in a conference is NOT going to help. With over 30 Million USD in the kitty from nTLD auctions so far they are best positioned to do so. They also need to leverage online tools and specific forums to help those who cannot travel to be active members of such processes.

One thing these speakers are correct about is perception created by flippers and traders in the Domain Industry for years, nothing new and nothing that nTLDs should be held responsible for, singularly.

As far as nTLDs Google says it best on its new registry home page:

"The Internet has always been first and foremost about self-expression, and the dawn of this era of hundreds of new domains marks one of the most unpredictable moments in the history of a highly unpredictable medium."

 

[onebrand.co]

To think about it, it is not really about getting money out of people. The only money they are actually getting out from are from the TLDs owners then to > Registrars then to > Domain Investors and it's pertaining industry then to > Companies (maybe). It stops here.

The majority of the people, general public, do not really care about domain industry, etc. And to businesses (end-users, not those in the domain industry), paying a low reg fee (from $xx to $x,xxx) per year is actually nothing to them.

.Coms will be around for 30 years in 2015 but the majority of public are still oblivious to the domain industry, let alone the mechanics and the new gTLDs.

So if the article "get money out of the people" refers to the domain industry, then the answer is maybe yes.
If the article "get money out of the people" refers to the general public, then it is a definite no.

That is our opinion :D

 

[RogueWriter]

I would like to know what ICANN is doing with all the extraneous income they have been receiving. They -have- to be generating s---loads of income from new gtld creation.

 

[Name Trader]

Not bad for a non-profit. So expect to see even more lavish "meetings".