Former ICANN Chairs Voice Concern With Domain Name Plan

Two key former officials with the nonprofit group that manages the Internet's domain name system are raising concerns with its plan to allow an unlimited number of generic Internet addresses, the top-level domain name suffixes that come after the dot like .com or .org.

Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf and tech investor Esther Dyson chaired the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers during its early years, when the group was introducing the first set of new domain names to compete with the only Internet addresses available to the public at the time: .com, .net. and .org. They now said they see several potential problems with ICANN's latest domain name plan, which has sparked strong opposition from major trademark owners. Dyson was ICANN's founding chairman of the board from 1998-2000, while Cerf, one of the pioneers in the Internet's development, succeeded Dyson in 2000 and served until 2007. Despite their past association with ICANN, neither has a formal role with the group any more. Following an appearance at an unrelated event, Cerf said that he's "nervous" about ICANN's new domain name proposal. He cited several potential concerns, including that it could create confusion among Internet users, big problems for trademark owners who may feel forced to register their trademark in all the new names or launch their own Internet addresses, and also logistical headaches if any of the operators of the new domain names go out of business. Dyson has raised similar concerns in recent months about ICANN's plan. In a syndicated column in August, Dyson also said expanding the number of domain names reduces the value of those out there already and questioned the motives behind the plan.