On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 10:37:34PM -0500, Frank Bulk - iNAME <frnkblk@iname.com> wrote a message of 37 lines which said:
...which is why it might be a strategy to blacklist all new TLDs (if this proposal gets through) and whitelist just .com, .net, etc.
Interesting. I do not know if this strategy will be implemented or not but, if it is, it will be a big change in Internet governance. No longer will the TLDs in the root be decided by ICANN or by its master, the US government, but they will have to be "vetted" by an informal group of network operators. A boycott by this group could have devastating effects for a business. We already see this in the email world, where a self-appointed cartel like the MAAWG can decide technical rules and policies, bypassing both IETF and ICANN. Even if only one half of the big operators enforce these rules, they will become de facto regulations, since noone can afford to have his email refused by this half. (To take a recent example, I configure rDNS on every email server I managed, even if I find the rule stupid and unfair, because I have no choice.) It will be an interesting turn back to the european cities of the Middle Age, with guilds approving (or, more often, disapproving) every technical or business novelty...