The world of wholesale domains is often controversial, and if you resell domains then you will be watching with interest as ICANN allow a new programme, meaning that anyone can register a new TLD application.
As with all major changes to public entities, there will always be people opposing these proposals, and it seems the ICANN plan to expand the top level domain programme is being met with some fierce criticism.
Under the current proposal, ICANN aim to allow virtually any word to become a TLD, whether a dictionary word of a brand name, meaning we could start to see TLD’s such as .pepsi, .eco and .microsoft as examples.
The Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (CRIDO) has been formed to oppose the roll out of this plan by ICANN, and comprises of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) who are joined by associations and companies such as the Intellectual Property Owners Association, the American Council of Life Insurers and the National Association of Manufacturers to name but a few. CRIDO believe that if this proposal is to go ahead then the internet will change and lose a great deal of the credibility that it has built up over the past decades. The association comprises of eighty seven trade associations which make up ninety percent of the global marketing and communications spending on a yearly basis.
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is a body who were founded in the early twentieth century and exist to provide the marketing community with information on their field, including collaboration and insights into trends. They aim to lead initiatives and communicate best marketing practices to ensure a bar for their community.
They believe that the plan to roll out the change for people to apply for new TLD’s is something of excessive cost and a great likelihood to harm the businesses of current owners. They feel that the need for brand protection would put pressure on current brand owners to apply for all the TLD’s (initially hundreds in the first years with plans to roll out for thousands in the future) and they feel this would be of detriment to small businesses, charities and non-profit entities that are currently struggling against large corporations.
If you resell domains then watch this space to see whether ICANN or CRIDO win this battle.