FTC Chairman: Top Domain name expansion could be a disaster

Sina Science and technology news Beijing time of December 8, the United States Federal Trade Commission (hereinafter referred to as "FTC") chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives of the intellectual property, competition and Internet Management Committee held in Wednesday, Joen Leibowitz, said in the. com Plans to add another hundreds of domain names to. NET may be a disaster. Leibovitz said at the hearing that the plan is not necessary for companies, it will only add additional costs and make it easier for fraudsters to build fraudulent websites. Leibovitz said that the Internet name and digital address distribution agencies (hereinafter referred to as "ICANN") of the domain Name System expansion plan, "may be very harmful." We believe that this will bring consumers and businesses a huge cost burden, and will not have much benefit. ICANN is a non-profit organization that manages the Internet's address system under a contract with the U.S. Department of Commerce. This June, the agency approved a plan to increase the number of top-level domain names beyond common domain names such as. com,. NET, and. org to drive innovation on the Internet. As planned, ICANN will accept a new domain name application from the 3-month window period starting January 12, which includes both the name of the business, brand and city, as well as words like book or. Shopping. The application fee for each domain name is USD 185,000. ICANN's domain expansion plan was opposed by more than 40 U.S. companies such as GE, Johnson and Coca-Cola, and last month the American Advertising Association joined them. These companies believe that the domain name expansion plan will increase the operating costs of enterprises, confusing, to bring new risks to internet fraud. "We are grateful for the concerns raised by President Leibovitz," said Brad White, a spokesman for ICANN. We have pledged to closely monitor any abuses of the new domain name project. If any problems arise, we will make the relevant mechanism to solve them. "Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Affairs of the U.S. Department of Commerce, Lawrence Strickling in Wednesday, said the U.S. Department of Commerce" has begun to focus on concerns about the introduction of new top-level domain names by some companies. "We will closely monitor the implementation of the plan and work with stakeholders, including U.S. industry, to mitigate any unintended consequences," Stricklin said. But he did not elaborate on it. The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to hold hearings in Thursday on ICANN's domain expansion plan, which will be attended by ICANN, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the American Advertising Association. The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee was chaired by the West Virginia State Democrat, the federal Senator Jay Lockfeller (Jay Rockefeller). In addition, the House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to hold hearings next week on ICANN's domain expansion plan. The FTC has no right to interfere with ICANN's affairs. The agency has the right to act only if it has unfair and deceptive business practices. (OAK)