NTIA Chief Scrutinizes ICANN Plans

National Telecommunications and Information Administration Acting Director Meredith Baker called on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers this week to resolve a list of potential problems before making sweeping changes to the way top-level domains, such as .biz, .info, and .us, are assigned. In a Thursday letter to ICANN, Baker said the organization must carefully consider public comments received on their plan and initiate further consultations, including the creation of a revised guidebook for those wishing to apply for a flurry of new domains -- a process projected to start in 2009. Baker said ICANN must ensure the introduction of a potentially large number of new domains, including internationalized domains, will not jeopardize the stability and security of the Internet and said the group must prove it has the sufficient capacity to enforce contract compliance with an as-yet-unknown number of new contracting parties. ICANN should also state how it will conduct legal reviews of applications, consider objections from third parties, and ensure that the introduction of new domains complies with domestic and international law, including intellectual property rights statutes. She also argued that the ICANN board's October 2006 request for an economic study to address a variety of domain name market related questions needs to be completed and the results be considered by the Internet community before new domains are introduced.