The press gobbled up a news release over the holiday about a Dutch company creating an alternative to ICANN’s domain name system.
Been there, done that. Similar to New.net, this system takes advantage of unsuspecting consumers who pay money for domain names that only work for a fraction of internet users. But the bigger problem lies in trademarks. If someone registered a something.xxx domain from New.net, they could theoretically get a trademark for the domain. Does that mean they have first rights to the “real” something.xxx domain when/if that extension becomes available through ICANN?
A number of alternatives to the usual domain naming system have been attempted (remember Real Names?). The bottom line is that the current domain name system is surprisingly efficient. Alternatives are merely an attempt to milk people for money.
Leave a Comment