ICANN suggests nixing applicants who gained unfair edge

Rod Beckstrom, president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), suggested that his group could deny applications for new domain endings if the applicants used a glitch to gain an unfair edge over their competitors.

He noted that ICANN has "ultimate authority" over approving all applications, and said the organization will examine whether any groups used a recent system glitch to look at the applications of their rivals. "If we were concerned with any parties' actions, one could hypothetically imagine that well could be taken into consideration [of whether to approve their applications]," Beckstrom said. He said ICANN officials will be able to tell whether any groups changed their applications after using the glitch to snoop on their competitors.