In response to the US government issuing seizure orders last week
against 82 domain names of commercial websites engaged in what the
government described as the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit
goods and copyrighted works, a new gTLD proposal has been launched.
The new proposal, Dot-P2P has been "formed to develop and promulgate an
alternative domain name system that the proposers hope will ensure it is
immune to action by the US or other governments."
While the domain name seizures may have ulterior motives, likely to be
linked to a bill introduced by US Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Hatch (R-UT)
in September called the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits
Act (COICA), it is hard to see how the proposal will be approved.
It would be assumed that copyright holders across a wide range of
industries such as music, film and television would object to any
proposal.
One of the "grounds for objection" in ICANN's Draft Applicant Guidebook
for prospective new gTLD applicants is "Community Objection." This is
where "there is substantial opposition to the gTLD application from a
significant portion of the community to which the gTLD string may be
explicitly or implicitly targeted."
Another grounds for objection to a .P2P proposal could be "Limited
Public Interest Objection." Grounds for objection under this would be
"whether the applied-for gTLD string is contrary to general principles
of international law for morality and public order."
The DAG goes on to say "the grounds upon which an applied-for gTLD
string may be considered contrary to generally accepted legal norms
relating to morality and public order that are recognised under
principles of international law are ... A determination that an
applied-for gTLD string would be contrary to specific principles of
international law as reflected in relevant international instruments of
law."
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