New.net Says I-CANN, Too.

Topic: Domain Names Guides |

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On March 5, New.net, a small Pasadena-based start-up, announced that it would be offering 20 new domain names, including .shop, .game, .chat, and .xxx - without the approval of ICANN, the Internet’s chief regulatory body.New.net hopes that its aggressive move will meet the massive demand for new TLDs … a market that has so far been fed by the fact that there are only three top-level domains (.net, .com, and .org) available for registration. In September, ICANN promised to release seven new TLDs, but then retracted the promise earlier this month. Now, there are rumors that, in yet another change of heart, ICANN is about to reinstate the new domain names. Dr. Vint Cerf, chairman of ICANN, denies that the threat of New.net’s domain names have anything to do with this most recent flip-flop.

New.net’s offerings may seem too good to be true - and in a way, they are. New.net domain name sites can be visited only by users whose ISPs have signed up with New.net; the roster currently includes EarthLink, Excite@Home, and NetZero. With a quick visit to www.new.net, individual users can also equip their browsers to pick up the new pages. At the moment, less than 17 million users are able to access the new domains; this is roughly equivalent to 4 percent of the online population.

However, New.net anticipates that this figure will increase rapidly. As more sites are registered on the new domains - and more users visit them - the company hopes to leverage its position, and force recalcitrant ISPs to sign, which they can do for free, in less than a minute. Will it work? Possibly. And possibly not.

However, ICANN has shrilly warned that once the inevitable copycat registries spring up, the Web could descend into chaos.
After all, there would be nothing to stop two different registries from offering the same .shop extension … and therefore, nothing to keep two different businesses from registering www.flower.shop. But if both registries signed the same ISP, the two sites would conflict. For this reason, a proliferation of renegade registries might cut into New.net’s market share, and undermine its threat to ICANN.

Since New.net isn’t breaking any regulations, ICANN has no legal recourse against the company; ICANN’s strongest line of defense may be that it offers stability and permanence to site builders. However, one thing is clear: ICANN cannot afford to dismiss the existence of the New.net business model.

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