|
If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain
names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.
The move could also see the launch of .xxx, after years of wrangling.
Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as
.uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional
organisations, such as .net, or .org.
To get around the restrictions, some companies have used the current
system to their own ends.
For example, the Polynesia island nation Tuvalu, has leased the use of
the .tv address to many television firms.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which
acts as a sort of regulator for the net as well as overseeing the domain
name system, has been working towards opening up net addresses for the last
three years.
|
 |
It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of
the internet
|
The plan would also allow for the new domain names to be
internationalised, and so could be written in scripts for Asian and Arabic
languages.
Dr Paul Twomey, chief executive of Icann, told BBC News that the
proposals would result in the biggest change to the way the internet worked
in decades.
"The impact of this will be different in different parts of the world.
But it will allow groups, communities and business to express their
identities online.
"Like the United States in the 19th Century, we are in the process of
opening up new real estate, new land, and people will go out and claim parts
of that land and use it for various reasons they have.
"It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the
internet."
Arbitration process
Hundreds of new domain names could be created by the end of the year,
rising to thousands in the future.
I'm all for tighter regulation, not opening it up further which
would only facilitate fraud
Karen, London
Icann says any string of letters can be registered as a domain, but there
will be an independent arbitration process for people with grounds for
objection.
The openness of the new system could pave the way for a .xxx domain name,
after more than half a decade of wrangling between its backers and Icann.
The latest attempt to launch .xxx was rejected by Icann last year on the
grounds that approval would put the agency into the position of a content
regulator.
When asked about the possibility of a .xxx domain name, Dr Twomey
repeated only that the new system would be "open to anyone".
The move could yet be blocked as the independent arbitration panel can
reject domains based on "morality or public order" grounds.
Dr Twomey said Icann was still working through how much the application
fee to register a domain name will be, but it is expected to be at least
several thousand dollars.
'Cost recovery'
"We are doing this on a cost recovery basis. We've already spent $10m on
this," he said.
Individuals will be able to register a domain based on their own name, or
any other string of letters, as long as they can show a "business plan and
technical capacity".
While companies will be able to secure domain names based on their
intellectual property easily, some domain names could become subject to
contention and a bidding war.
Dr Twomey said: "If there is a dispute, we will try and get the parties
together to work it out. But if that fails there will be an auction and the
domain will go to the highest bidder.
|
Related Links
