Thanks to Jim Fleming for posting the URL and text. > > http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/usrfc2/comments.html > > "The proposed plan would auction new generic second-level domain names under > .us (.e.g. business.us, loans.us), the proceeds from which would fund a > "Digital Opportunity Trust" that connects, educates, and empowers people to > participate in the networked society. Until now the .us space has been > unattractive for commercial users and individuals because of its cumbersome > registration system under geographic localities, e.g. ibm.armonk.ny.us. The > new .us system we propose will auction generic names as an efficient way to > allocate scarce resources and would be restructured to facilitate > non-commercial uses in the public interest." This proposal has been made by The Benton Foundation and the Media Access Project, in response to the NTIA's call for comments on its Statement of Work (SOW), pursuant (supposedly) to another RFC on .US management (there have been previous ones). The proposal is interesting and worth a read. However, the above quote from it raises an obvious question: How does auctioning 2LDs facilitate non-commercial uses in the public interest? Commercial interests with more money will get them in an auction. Another question of interest, which perhaps the NTIA persons copied could respond to: On the ISI's new .US website (http://www.nic.us/), a "Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy" is listed under "General Information" and linked to ICANN's website (no mention of the UDRP anywhere else on the .US website). Does this mean that .US has been placed under ICANN's UDRP by NTIA or ISI fiat? If so, does this mean that there are elements of the management of .US which have already been decided by the NTIA? If that is the case, could the NTIA tell us what these elements are, so that we won't waste time discussing them and submitting proposals regarding them? Michael Sondow ================================================================= INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF INDEPENDENT INTERNET USERS http://www.iciiu.org (ICIIU) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel(718)846-7482 Fax(603)754-8927 =================================================================
