Many other countries are similar, ccTLD registrations are far outpacing .com and .net (and the other gTLDs). Meanwhile Verisign is further shooting itself in the foot by proposing WLS which will take internet users to sites they didn't expect, eg: pr0n (and even if WLS doesn't go through there will be others offering a similar service, many already do). .com and .net are increasingly full of drek, becoming the equivalent of 'If you want spam, sign up with AOL'. The current lawsuits probably won't do any involved party's reputation any good either, and unless they settle they'll go on for years.

The ccTLDs would be foolish to hitch themselves to this mess (which most of them never really have), ditto for the RIRs. How long would it take to duplicate the infrastructure and tell the US to keep its ICANN? -g