This article was more nuanced than I first thought. I figured it would be yet another screed against "too much choice", as if the fifteen brands of mustard in the grocery store throws shoppers into a fetal position, sobbing.
Thankfully, the author does not advocate the use of force to prevent this. As he says:
So should it be legal? Of course, they can do what they want. And that’s better than the other extreme; I’d rather live with too many products and companies making money off other company’s ignorance than the reverse, where regulation stifles progress, controlled by the only entity capable of more waste and more ignorance than even the largest company: government.
With the threat of force off the table, I am far more likely to hear him out and be amenable to his suggestions. I for one will not be buying a new top-level domain, but anyone who wants to shell out $185,000 is free to do so. It makes no difference to me which account number holds that $185,000, since it's not my money to begin with.
What force? As far as I know, ICANN only manages DNS on behalf of the US government, as stated in contract. They can simply not renew their contract, no force needed. In fact, the current contract expires in September.
I was referring to his question: "So should it be legal?" He answered: "Of course, they can do what they want." Therefore I conclude that the author does not advocate that government employees use force to stop this new TLD business.
Oh! You just blew my mind. You meant "They [the US GOVT] can simply not renew their contact [with ICANN]." For some fool reason I had that backwards.
Interesting scenario, but then my questions would be (1) who would the U.S government use besides ICANN, or even (2) could ICANN just keep doing what they do with the U.S. government's sponsorship?
Shows you how much I know about what goes on up there.
Well, even now the DOC¹ has to approve any change in the DNS root zone, so ICANN can't unilaterally do whatever they want. My guess is that the govt would simply cut ICANN out of the loop and implement the policies themselves.
As for who would run it besides ICANN, well, before 1998 IANA² was run by Jon Postel, so it's not absurd to consider they could find someone to manage it. This is purely speculative, though, I really don't know nearly enough to be sure about this.
¹ Department of Commerce
² The organization (nowadays, set of functions in ICANN) which actually manages DNS and such.
Thankfully, the author does not advocate the use of force to prevent this. As he says:
So should it be legal? Of course, they can do what they want. And that’s better than the other extreme; I’d rather live with too many products and companies making money off other company’s ignorance than the reverse, where regulation stifles progress, controlled by the only entity capable of more waste and more ignorance than even the largest company: government.
With the threat of force off the table, I am far more likely to hear him out and be amenable to his suggestions. I for one will not be buying a new top-level domain, but anyone who wants to shell out $185,000 is free to do so. It makes no difference to me which account number holds that $185,000, since it's not my money to begin with.