The New York Times has quoted Peter Dengate Thrush, Icann’s chairman as saying:
“We’re expecting a broad range of applicants. Indigenous communities might come forward to protect aspects of their language and culture,”
“We may see a .smith so that all the Smiths in the world will have a place.”
“It’s very exciting to see what people will do with those names,” he said.
While some groups are applauding the move, there are those who think this opens up a whole new can of worms when it comes to threats online fights over ownership of names. According to ICANN applications for the new domains would go through an independent review process and companies will have the first priority when it comes to claiming their brand names. Lauren Weinstein, an Internet activist and co-founder of the group People for Internet Responsibility “The potential for mass confusion and fraud and phishing from these new domains seems to be what the primary impact will be for consumers,” and that “I fail to see the positive for consumers in this. It’s all downside.”
Looks like it's the wild wild west all over again! The only possible savior is that ICANN expects the top-level domains to start in the low 6 figure range.
