The reporting on the new .sucks domain has been terrible, so here's what's going on.<p>The new gTLD Program from ICANN did more than just instantiate new domains. It created new processes and most importantly the Trademark Clearinghouse(TMCH).<p>The TMCH is a database of validated trademarks from around the world.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_Clearinghouse" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_Clearinghouse</a><p>Along with the TMCH ICANN also created the Domain Protected Marks List(DPML). When registries open up a new gTLD for registrations they must start with a sunrise period. During this sunrise period a registry can allow trademark holders whose trademark is registered in the TMCH early access to their trademark.gTLD. This special sunrise price is set by the registry and can basically be anything. Initially .sucks was talking about charging $25,000, but they lowered it to $2,500.<p>After the sunrise period anyone can register a .sucks domain on a first-come, first-serve basis. The important thing to remember is that after the sunrise period the price discrimination goes away and both trademark holders and the general public pay the same amount for domain names.<p>I'm a grad student at UC Berkeley who researches this stuff so AMA. I also wrote the Wikipedia page for the Trademark Clearinghouse so I can vouch for its correctness.
I don't really see how {company-name}.sucks is any worse than {company-name}sucks.com. Do firms really go around registering every combination of bad words with their brand name, with every standard TLD? Can't imagine they do...
Can we either get rid of TLDs or make them as arbitrary as the rest of the URL already?<p>Is there a good reason why I shouldn't be able to go to some registry site and just buy ycombinator.clownpenis.fart if I want to, other than possibly being sued by ycombinator and/or NBC?
I think it won't be long before someone gets sued over a .sucks or .porn style domain. Then we'll see what happens in court. Due to the nature of the internet it'll be a debate fought multiple times internationally as well, eg. the USA has completely different slander laws to the UK.<p>The extortion angle is particularly interesting, because $2500 isn't exactly small money to prevent your personal name being registered on a .sucks domain. I think it would be wise for any of these new tld providers to offer free takedowns of malicious sites in order to avoid lawsuits. Extortion isn't a minor crime - it'll get you serious time in jail.
For a select few, this will be an awesome branding opportunity (hoover.sucks, dyson.sucks).<p>Ultimately, this is not a matter of free speech, which has always been a negative right: if you're not facing criminal charges or government harassment, your free speech rights are intact.<p>Rather, this racket highlights why the web deserves a decentralized naming protocol, rather than an institution that combines the worst elements of arbitrary federal beauracracy and predatory, rent-seeking capitalism.
>Independent activists who want to use the suffix and pledge to blog can pay as little as $10 a year.<p>>But if a person wants to preemptively block their name, that will cost $200 a year.<p>So you can buy a domain name on which to be critical about yourself for $10 per year, or fork out $200 to prevent others from doing so?<p>Do I <i>have</i> to be critical of myself in that case? Or could I have borgia.sucks and have it listing my accomplishments and how great a person I am?
IMHO, if I were a large company, and someone tried to use my mark in such a way, I would simply sue them for trademark infringement. The registrar in this case... it's worked in suits against google in terms of advertising, and I'm pretty sure it would hold up here.<p>In this case, I'm pretty sure a corporation protecting its' mark would win, and that it'd likely cost more than $2500. But for a corporation with a dedicated team of lawyers on-staff not a big deal.
Not extortion. Free speech.
Freedom of speech means the freedom to criticize. As long as hate sites make clear that they are not affiliated with the thing they criticize, let them say what they want. If it's false information, sue them for libel. If it's true, get your shit together.
edit: FYI, title got changed from "ycombinator.sucks - A New Internet Domain: Extortion Or Free Speech? (npr.org)" which is why I used the website name down here.<p>ycomibinator.sucks?<p>Maybe this is not such a bad idea. It can be a nice simple "living document" of criticisms to yCombinator.<p>Often times, creators of products and services often look towards negative feedback to see how they can make their product/service better.