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Auerbach Weighs in for gTLD Lotteries
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ICANN has behaved as if it has the power to prevent TLDs from failing - hence the deeply intrusive inquiry into applicant business practices and the micro-management of TLD operator business practices. (Although that micro management appears to occur main when it benefits ICANN's image and rarely occurs when the party harmed is the public.)
However, ICANN has no ability to keep TLD operators afloat - ICANN's bloated budget isn't bloated enough to do a Chrysler/Lockheed style bailout of a failing TLD.
So, even if ICANN were to base policy on the notion of not-failing TLDs, the practical reality is that every now and then one of 'em will go belly up.
It seems to me better to recognize the reality of business failures and to not try to build an intrinsicly compromised system founded on the fantasyland that TLDs will not fail.
ICANN has never faced, much less answered, the question whether it is a consumer protection agency.
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Re:Should TLDs Be Allowed to Fail?
by KarlAuerbach
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A brief response:
First, as the root expands business failures are inevitable.
Second, I don't think ICANN will try to keep failed TLDs alive as "going concerns," but it might try to keep alive a static version of the TLD--no new registrations, but for a fee, the SLD owner could point to a new IP address and renew the registration. I do not favor this, but I think it may well be the option that ICANN chooses.
Third, Karl is absolutely right. ICANN needs to decide whether it is a consumer protection agency, or whether it should simply allow the market to operate.
Fourth, if ICANN decides the failed TLDs will be kept alive in vestigal form as a consumer protection measure, that decision means that the root resource becomes more scarce.
I would like to thank Karl for his very helpful contribution to my understanding of this issue. Lawrence Solum
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