ICANN to overhaul internet domain names?

[Triple Zero]

I mean, wouldn't it be cool to be a card-carrying member of the INTERNET SOCIETY? Don't worry ma'am. I'm from the INTERNET SOCIETY.

also, PBF: don't worry it's just the internet. i don't care for large corporations grabbing money off eachother. like Cain said, if you wanna start an internet business, who cares what domain name you got exactly? whether i got himeo.bs at the bahamas or hime.obs from the nice people at the Official Benefit Society?

[Cain]

And how exactly does this impact on Grocery Store, my local shop?  People copy big companies because they are well known and thus likely to attract more marks.  My local grocery store, Chinese takeaway, kebab shop and pubs don't even have websites.  And if they did, I'd doubt they'd get a hit a week. 

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

And how exactly does this impact on Grocery Store, my local shop?  People copy big companies because they are well known and thus likely to attract more marks.  My local grocery store, Chinese takeaway, kebab shop and pubs don't even have websites.  And if they did, I'd doubt they'd get a hit a week. 

Ebay? PayPal? Local Banks? Local city, or federal sites?

Does no one ever actually shop online in England? I had no idea that everyone made all of their purchases from local independent shoppes. 

Yes, this change to Internet rules will only affect entities on the Internet.

Unless of course, the people that own those Mom and Pop shops use the Internet for banking or purchases or delivery logistics... or if their suppliers do...

[Cain]

Ebay and Paypal aren't multinational corporations?  Local banks aren't members of huge international networks of finance?

Of course people shop online, but that wasn't my assertion.  My assertion was that any scammers would target big companies, who I really don't give a shit about if they get screwed over by Icann, given how often they've screwed over their workforces, public and practically everyone else.  Besides, wouldn't I then feel sorry for the people being scammed?  The whole premise I take offense at is this is somehow some terrible burden for companies who give bloated pay packages to their management, treat their workforces like shit and make millions in profit every year.  Stop shifting the goalposts.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Ebay and Paypal aren't multinational corporations?  Local banks aren't members of huge international networks of finance?

Of course people shop online, but that wasn't my assertion.  My assertion was that any scammers would target big companies, who I really don't give a shit about if they get screwed over by Icann, given how often they've screwed over their workforces, public and practically everyone else.  Besides, wouldn't I then feel sorry for the people being scammed?  The whole premise I take offense at is this is somehow some terrible burden for companies who give bloated pay packages to their management, treat their workforces like shit and make millions in profit every year.  Stop shifting the goalposts.

My concerns aren't so much the overhead or cost to big companies (though many smaller companies with a web presence will likely NOT invest the time and money, leaving yet more random humans to get screwed)... I figure thats the cost of doing business. My concerns are primarily related to the architecture of DNS, the overhead this may cause and the potential windfall for scammers, NO MATTER WHAT COMPANY THEY'RE IMITATING.

In the end, if Joe Blow gets fucked by www.VictoriasSecret.panties its not our fault, responsibility or anything... even the PR would be a tiny blip... but Joe, in trying to buy something nice for his wife, will be spending the next several months, maybe years, trying to get unfucked.

[Triple Zero]

actually, ratatosk is making a good point. this is going to be a phishing nightmare.

[Golden Applesauce]

My highschool used Edline, a net service where teachers could post grades/schedules/assignments online, mostly so parents could better track their kids' grades.  Would have been better if more than 20% of the teachers had any clue how a computer worked.

Now, I'm pretty sure both these sites are owned by the same company:
http://www.edline.net
http://www.edline.com

but you see what I mean?

[PeregrineBF]

Yup. This will lead to small problems for large companies (they can eat a few million in losses easily), large problems for small companies, and massive problems for the average person. The internet is used in too much for it to be blown off as "just the internet." For some reason they started putting critical systems on the internet, like power plants. Bad design, but it means stuff like this could cause real problems, instead of just taking out some porn.

[Requia ☣]

To my understanding, only registrars will be able to register new TLDs (right now to get www.variable.com, you have to get it fourthhand, ICANN sells to one party, who sells to a third, and at best, you can buy from that third party, if squatting is involved, there are even more middlemen), which means this hurts the big corporations the most, imagine having to buy every variation of wal mart from domain squatters who already had to pay someone who had to pay thousands of dollars to get ahold of the TLD.

On the other hand, this will be too expensive for domain squatting to be used against most small businesses, since they flat out can't afford to pay inflated prices.