GAC Urges ICANN Board to Address Concerns on Sale of Domains Corresponding With ccTLDs
ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee urged the organization's board Wednesday to “take into account the serious concerns expressed by some GAC members” about ICANN's policy to allow domain registries to sell two-letter domain names that match county code top-level domains (ccTLDs).…
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The board in November agreed to release all two-letter names while requiring registrants not to claim they are affiliated with the country whose ccTLD corresponds with a registered domain name. The board also required registries to investigate governments' complaints about registered two-letter names. The ICANN board should “engage with concerned governments” before the organization's planned June 26-29 meeting in Johannesburg “to resolve these concerns” and “immediately explore measures to find a satisfactory solution of the matter to meet the concerns of these countries before being further aggravated,” GAC said in its communique. The board also should “provide clarification of the decision-making process and of the rationale” for its November release of the two-letter domain names, GAC said. Brazil, China, the EU and Iran are among countries that raised concerns about ICANN's decision. Governments don't have a legal right to second-level domains that correspond to their ccTLD strings, said ICANN board member Chris Disspain during a Wednesday meeting with GAC during the organization's conference in Copenhagen. Some GAC members disagreed. Iranian GAC member Kavouss Arasteh said that “the multistakeholder process was not easily accepted by many countries. Still, people have difficulty with that.” Arasteh threatened to seek ITU involvement in the issue at its 2018 Plenipotentiary Conference “if the matter is not resolved.” It's “not always commercial; government also has some powers, and we exercise our powers,” Arasteh said.