.combat: A messy and expensive row is brewing over new suffixes for internet addresses
IT IS the online equivalent of the land-grabs of 19th-century America. Earlier this year the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the outfit in charge of addresses in cyberspace, allowed applications for new suffixes. That would allow new domains, such as .microsoft, .paris and .music, to join the 22 existing handles, such as .com and .info.
This move has generated excitement, but also controversy. Security experts fret about fraud. Even if the new suffixes flop, brand owners complain they will have to spend millions buying domains they don’t want, just to protect their online identities. The cost was pitched high to deter timewasters: $185,000 to ICANN to start with, an annual $25,000-and tens of thousands in lawyers’ fees. But such “defensive registrations” will be costly for small businesses and charities—and a nuisance for big ones, who may have to register multiple domains. Esther Dyson, who used to chair ICANN’s board, has compared the expansion to financial derivatives that add complexity without creating value. The price for the new names is less a result of the scarcity of online real estate than of greed among powerful domain registries, marketing agencies and lawyers.