Question: One ccTLD is the same as a professional designation. Registration is much higher (4-5x) than the norm. Why create gold mines (e.g., DDS; law) like that? Can TLDs be eliminated over the next few years? Wouldn't the long term impact be less than by creating new TLDs?

Nominee Replies

Lawrence Lessig - posted on 2000-10-09 20:26:44 Goldmines get built, true. But alternatives can be just as attractive. I favor more freedom, not more restriction. Emerson Tiller, J.D., Ph.D. - posted on 2000-10-08 20:33:05 It is better to increase TLDs to facilitate greater and more accurrate communication and self-identification of groups. The long term impact of reducing the number of TLDs would be to create more scarcity and to make the market value of any individual domain name higher, not lower. Lyman Chapin - posted on 2000-10-08 15:25:19 From personal experience, I know that it never occurred to Jon or anyone else involved in IANA issues that Moldova was getting a windfall with the ccTLD .md, or that Colombia might think about taking advantage of .co. I hope that over the next few years we find other ways to assert identity on the Internet - domain names were never intended for that purpose, and they serve it poorly.