Tuesday, June 09, 2009

UK Business Fear ICANN Domain Changes Will Fuel Crime

John E. Dunn writes on TechWorld.com:

A high percentage of UK businesses have no idea that the Internet's top-level domains (TLDs) are to be liberalised next year and some of those who do fear it will simply put them at the mercy of cybersquatters, an in-depth survey for domain outfit Gandi has found.

The survey of over 1,000 UK-based respondents, including 100 large retail and SME business managers, found a degree of frustration with the current domain naming structure, which restricts businesses and individuals to buying names from a limited number of possibilities, such as .com, .net. and .co.uk. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they had to settle for domain names or extensions other than the ones they wanted, for instance.

It might be assumed, then, that ICANN's (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) proposed 2010 expansion of domain names to include new structures such as geographical names (.London and .Paris), company names (.Nike, .Coke), and even themed names (.God) would meet with unqualified approval.

As has proved the case with the wider business and technical community during ICANN's consultation period in the last year, the survey found a mixed picture.

More here.

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