Geoff Huston wrote:

> It is noted that in increasing the number of second level domain names
> there is a distinct risk of over compensation and a distinct risk to the
> overall perceived integrity of the environment. The integrity perception
> issue will be problematical with the likely entry of operators into the
> environment who see this is an opportunity to generate income without
> undertaking any service obligations associated with the task. Irrespective
> of the administrative preconditions imposed on DAs there will be incidents
> of scam-based trading practices without doubt. The over compensation risk
> lies in the proliferation of SLDs, and the consequent devaluation the
> inherent utility of the name system. For example, if there are some 1,000
> second level domain names and a named entity of "xyz" a search for the
> "right" xxx where the "xyz" of interest is named as in xyz.xxx.au may be
> prohibitively lengthy and may not yield a definitive result.

This is exactly what is so ridiculous about proposals to populate
the TLD area with hundreds of "industry style" names, such as
.firm, .web, .trademark, .whatever. It seems to me at the top level,
most of the proposals for additional TLDs are synonymous with
.COM, i.e. a widened and weakened domain space for commercial
interests.

Let us not forget that there are far more varied uses of the
DNS than simply industry, enterprise or commercial interests
(although one would be forgiven for forgetting this).

As for .AU, a simple proposal for SLDs is to continue to
map whatever TLDs exist into the .AU namespace. It's a
no-brainer, and very easy for all Internet users to
comprehend. I find .UK and .CAa just a tad confusing since those
two ccTLDs have chosen NOT to reflect the 3-letter TLDs.

Orthogonal to choices for expansion in the .AU SLDs, and
much more difficult to specify and eventually decide on
will be the governance and administration of DAs in .AU,
as the USA is experiencing.

==================================================================
 _/  Richard Welykochy                 mailto:rick§dot.net.au
_/  Dot Communications Ltd             http://www.dot.net.au/world
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