--On Friday, July 24, 2015 5:29 AM +0200 Dave Crocker
<dcrocker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 7/24/2015 12:15 AM, John C Klensin wrote:
>> So someone makes one of those
>> applications, moves a name through the ICANN process, and then
>> ICANN comes to the IETF and says "is it ok to approve and
>> delegate that name". I hesitate to think about what would
>> happen if we said "no", but assume it would involve
>> organizations trying to get their $300-$400K (each) back and
>> lawyers.
>
> On the other hand, that model nicely matches how we do
> standards approval, in terms of requiring extended, up-front
> investment, with no basis for determining likely approval...
Yes, but I'm not sure the analogy works. In the standards
situation, if the work is done, the people who do it are happy
with the results, but the IETF does not approve a standard, the
interested parties are, in general, still free to go ahead and
deploy products and, if they want endorsement from someone, to
go forum shopping. We've even seen cases in which an enterprise
discovers that lying about having a standard is almost as good
as having one. By contrast, in the TLD names case, if one
applies for a name in the root and doesn't get it, there is no
practical alternative (other than alternate roots, of course) --
if one thinks one wants or needs a name and the application is
rejected, one has nothing and no alternatives other than the try
to get the decision reversed.
It would be interesting to try to estimate the cost of
participants of developing an IETF Proposed Standard and then to
compare that to various estimates of the cost to develop and
submit a TLD application.
john