The domain name business is controlled by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Just like in any other business, there are decisions ICANN makes that are extremely important. These decisions though are far reaching and can affect people on a worldwide scale, say like a microsoft, except in a different way. Even microsoft uses domain names on the internet to develop websites that will draw traffic to their respective business. Of course, the dot com is the most desirable domain extension but there are many others. One of these is the dot tv. Originally dot tv was released as a country extension like the dot us is for the United States. The dot TV is named after the little island of Tuvalu. Now, some scientists and meteorologists believe Tuvalu is going to sink in the ocean.
But – what about the Ethical Responsibility of ICANN & the Registrars Many in the domain name business believe that since dot TV was also released for use to the general public – it should be secured for the general public. There are many reasons for this belief. Dot TV is a great media name. It is said, that the two letters T & V are the most recognizable two letters in the world. You can go where people do not even speak english and people will recognize TV. ICANN, if it intended dot TV to not be available to everyone, could have easily made rules requiring the purchase of dot TV to be ONLY for citizens of Tuvalu – but ICANN chose not to. It is very hard to believe such an intellectual group (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), would allow a dot TV top level domain, without immediately knowing it would have a much broader appeal than to just the citizens of Tuvalu. Knowing the above, ICANN would have made the Tuvalu Island extension tev, or something equivalent. This is definite proof ICANN intended .TV to be used for the media and other prospective investors. The Tuvalu Islands are the 4th smallest country in the world, about 10 square miles, and a population of less than 15,000. It is indeed a stretch of the imagination to believe ICANN had the intention of only Tuvalu citizens owning the.TV extension. Dot TV would not have been very profitable as only a country tld and ICANN knows this. There are countries and other entities knocking down the door of ICANN to try and get their tld approved. Dot TV was approved first because of its very valuable television media appeal. And this media appeal is rapidly including the internet. ICANN would have also known dot TV’s would be marketed internationally to prospective domain name buyers. Registrars were allowed to sell .TV to anyone, splashed across their home page to entice ANY buyer. As of this writing, Wikipedia the worlds largest internet library, informs readers that dot TV is a tld that IS AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC and HAS VALUE AS A MEDIA TLD. And Wikipedia is only one of many. This shows there is not a serious effort to discourage buyers who are not citizens of Tuvalu. The country of Tuvalu received millions of dollars for releasing.TV to the public domain – so even they knew it was a hot television media domain name extension. This is evidence the cries of cybersquatting are exaggerated. People depend on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers when they make decisions to purchase their top level domains. And serious decisions were made with the belief there would be no future repercussions, including loss of ownership. None of this is saying the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is not admitting to knowing the above. This being true, then ICANN has an ethical responsibility to continue the .tv tld. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers let this great extension be marketed to a vast public, so it has a responsibility to uphold it for the vast public. Why all the Fuss? The reason for all the fuss is that ICANN has stated in their internet rules that any country that ceases to exist will cause the tld from that country to cease. Well, then why was the tld so aggressively marketed to people all over the world? GoDaddy, the worlds largest registrar, was one of the companies who aggressively sold .tv. Now, they have dropped it from their listed tlds for sale and helped devalue the extension by saying Tuvalu might sink in the ocean. In the meantime the customers who helped make them successful are the ones left to sink. Registrars like GoDaddy get a huge amount of their profits from selling registered domain names. And the dot TV is one of the most expensive to purchase. A more fitting and ethical response would have been to first talk to ICANN and work out a continuation of dot TV regardless of what happens to Tuvalu. Officials may even purchase another island to keep their countries name and heritage alive – the world does want the best for the people of Tuvalu. GoDaddy has a lot of Clout Bob Parsons, GoDaddy C.E.O., is a huge success story and being number one in domain registrations would at least have gotten the ear of ICANN. It is still probably going to happen. Multi-million dollar television media companies have invested in .TV, along with many other investors. Other than what is ethically right, there is still a lot of money laying on the table. In number 5 of ICANN’s agreement states: MODIFICATIONS TO AGREEMENT – You agree that we may: (1) revise the terms and conditions of this Agreement: That is the only ethical thing to do – revise the Agreement to include all purchasers of the dot TV tld for past, present and the future – because this is how the tld was sold.
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