New .sucks domain stirs up storm over free speech
New .sucks domain stirs up storm over free speech
April 10, 2015 6:35 AM
The new Internet domain .sucks has stirred up a firestorm
over free online speech and the potential for extortion against companies and
individuals.
The company operating this new domain claims it is
"designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find
the value in criticism."
But critics see it as a shakedown scheme designed to
force companies and individuals to fork over cash to keep an unfavorable or
offensive website offline.
According to media reports, Microsoft, Facebook, Google
and other large companies have bought up the domains by exercising their
trademark priority rights, presumably with no intent to use them. Music star
Taylor Swift reportedly did the same thing.
What has fueled concerns is that the domain registrar, a
Canadian-based company called Vox Populi, is charging $2,500 for the website
names -- far more than a typical website registration of $10 to $25 -- before
the names are opened to the public on June 1.
The Intellectual Property Constituency, an advisory group
to the global Internet domain regulator, complained last month that the
"exorbitant sums" are effectively a "shakedown scheme" to
get money from companies and others.
After the June 1 deadline, online trolls or
"cybersquatters" could buy up the names and then extort even higher
prices, according to the group which includes film, software and music industry
associations and other trademark organizations.
The group last month urged the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which manages the domain system, to stop
the .sucks domain before it goes live.
But ICANN says it lacks the authority to look into
questions of pricing or other abuses and that it does not interfere with online
free speech.
- Not a 'content' regulator -
"We do not get into the content or the business
model or the pricing of a registry," said Akram Atallah, who heads ICANN's
global domains division.
Vox Populi followed all procedures for its application,
with no formal objections lodged during the comment period, he added.
Atallah told AFP however that as a result of the
complaint, ICANN decided to forward the matter to regulators in the United
States and Canada.
On Thursday, ICANN asked the US Federal Trade Commission
and Canada's Office of Consumer Affairs to determine if Vox Populi is doing
anything illegal.
In a letter to the two agencies, ICANN said it was
"concerned about the contentions of illicit actions" by Vox Populi
but that it lacks the expertise or jurisdiction to evaluate them.
If the agencies find Vox Populi is violating local laws,
ICANN could void the contracts, according to Atallah.
"They have a contract and have to abide by local
laws," he said.
John Berard, chief executive at Vox Populi, told AFP the
new domain is something that companies can use to engage with consumers, and
that he sees the word "sucks" as "edgy" but not pejorative.
"We think we're creating an opportunity for
interaction that is meaningful," he said.
"If a company were to establish its own .sucks site
and drive that discussion to a centralized location it might be quite a
valuable asset."
Berard added that the pricing "reflects what we
believe to be the value of the names."
Asked about ICANN's letter to regulators, Berard said,
"I don't think that anyone who takes a look will find a problem."
Greg Sterling, an analyst for Opus Research who
contributes to the Marketing Land blog, said .sucks "appears to be more
about extortion than free speech, though it's wrapped in the latter to justify
its existence."
The situation is "the latest version of longstanding
efforts to hijack brands and outrank them with negative or critical
information," Sterling told AFP.
The debate comes with ICANN acting to vastly expand the
number of so-called generic top-level domains (gTLDs) from the traditional ones
like .com and .gov, including some such as .porn and .wine.
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