As I mentioned in a previous post, ICANN has opened a public comment period on the issue of closed versus open generic TLDs in the context of its new gTLD process. Some of the comments already posted are quite insightful and I was particularly struck by the thoughtful contribution drafted by Milton Mueller and other members of the Noncommercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG).
Jacqui, as you know this has been an issue on which Milton and some members of iCANN’s NCSG (myself included, having been one of the NCSG’s elected reps to ICANN’s GNSO Council for 4 years) feel pretty strongly about. Quite aside from the principle of the thing, which Milton and the other members who signed on state very clearly, ICANN would do itself no good by imposing new rules after the fact. Closed generics were always a possibility and not in any way prohibited by the rules for the new gTLD program; those who want those rules changed now were either not paying attention for the last 6 years or (as can be seen from some of the comments) have their own business or personal interests to look out for 🙁
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