Since Esther's at the global meeting for establishing mandatory net
content ratings, and seems to be chafing a bit over it, I'd like to
point something out:
Domain names would probably have to be rated as well.
Since Esther *is* at this conference, and is the de facto face of ICANN,
shouldn't someone speak as an official representative of ICANN on these
issues?
I certainly don't want the enforcement of ratings on any content on
the net, and I am certain I don't want it enforced based on domain names.
Let's face it: The only reason anyone would want a global mandatory
rating system is to enact filtering based on those ratings.
If ICANN allows this to occur (and they might -- quite a bit of the money
behind ICANN is also propping up this ratings effort), they will be in
a position to become the arbiters of content on the Net.
Since WG-C is concerned with the introduction of new gTLDs, we should be
very wary of this effort. One could easily imagine a push to classify
content based on gTLD. If you think .com's diluted and confusing now,
you just wait until companies are told they must use a particular gTLD
for a particular type of content. Everywhere you turn, there will be
confusing, misleading, and/or meaningless .com entries, all in an effort
to avoid the gTLDs created specifically to be filtered out.
--
Mark C. Langston LATEST: ICANN refuses Let your voice be heard:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] to consider application for http://www.idno.org
Systems Admin Constituency status from organized http://www.icann.org
San Jose, CA individual domain name owners http://www.dnso.org
