Kieren Mc Carthy is out with an article on TheRegister.co.uk that highlights the keynote speeches from Namescon today. Mc Carthy highlighted talks from Kurt Pritz (Domain Name Association), Fiona Alexander (NTIA) and Jennifer Wolfe from Wolfe Domains.
The headline is what drew me in, “Dot-word domains ‘a shakedown, designed to get money out of people”
But with power comes responsibility, two keynoters, Fiona Alexander of the US government’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Kurt Pritz of the Domain Name Association (DNA), pointed out.
“One of the many challenges of this [new gTLDs] program has been the negative public perception of the domain name industry,” noted Alexander.
“Accusations of cybersquatting and brand shakedowns through defensive registrations have done nothing to generate trust or good will. Only you all can change that perception.”
Wolfe stated that many of the big brand owners she speaks to view new gTLDs as a shakedown, designed to get money out of them, rather than an opportunity for branding online. “There’s not a lot of enthusiasm for them,”
Read the full article on TheRegister