[dns-operations] keeping ICANN busy

[ebw at abenaki.wabanaki.net]

On 9/22/12 1:53 PM, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> In a way, .COM is special: it is by far the largest TLD and for many
> people the reference TLD. One can probably argue that it has a form of
> dominance on the market that calls for special rules.

This has been observed by many. For example arguements that "it has a form
of dominance on the market that calls for special rules" see the comments
by the correspondence of James Tierney, Chief, Networks and Technology,
Enforcement Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, to
Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and
Information and Administrator, National Telecommunications and Information
Administration, Department of Commerce, of June 14, 2011, or closer to home,
the correspondence of the Directorate General for Competition to the Chair
and CEO of ICANN of June 17, 2011.

Your discussion of wildcards in .COM and .MUSEUM omits discussion of the
period in which the ".COM registrar" function was exercised by the same entity
which exercised the ".COM registry" function, and the imposition of barriers
to a similar unified exercise for a limited period of time, or registration
event count, by the .MUSEUM (and other "sponsored" registry) operator(s),
in 2001/2. Had the ICOM qualified registrations in the .COM zone transfered
to the .MUSEUM zone as part of the conditions of launch (see the redelegation
of .ORG for contractor transfer authority), or had merely the accounts and
the revenues transfered from Network Solutions to MuseDoma, and MuseDoma
allowed to operate as its own registrar until it achieved 30% or more of the
ICOM qualified institutional market, the utility of wildcards in the .MUSEM
apex would have been marginal to the operator.

Eric