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• March, 2004  Hastings Communications and Entertainment Law Review publishes An Economic Analysis of Domain Name Policy, 25 COMM/ENT 317.
  
• 4/5/2003  9:45 AM.  North American Board Member Karl Auerbach comments on Cerf's Principle and Auerbach's own First Law of the Internet.  He also advocates lotteries for gTLD expansion.  See Cavebear Blog.
  
• 3/27/2003  1:30 PM (Rio). Larry Solum summarizes the Spring ICANN meeting in his Legal Theory Blog.  He writes that, although problems of process still remain ("everyone seems to elect everyone else in an Ourobus Worm of interlocking Supporting Organizations, Nominating Committee, and Board"), this meeting focused on real substantive issues, not the least of which is root expansion.  According to Cerf's Principle, "a new TLD should be allowed in the root so long as it does no harm."  The articulation of this principle by the ICANN Chairman is one of the most significant developments in a long time.  There's hope yet for development of a rational and efficient domain name policy.
• 3/26/2003  4:40 PM (Rio).  Outgoing ICANN President Stuart Lynn presents TLD expansion plan ("beauty contest" comparative evaluation of sponsored TLDs) at public hearing.  Many commentators offered constructive criticism and concern that the proposal sets a bad precedent and further delays meaningful expansion of the root.  The terms of debate have definitely changed as key ICANN participants now understand that strict command and control of gTLD expansion is bad policy.  Indeed, the case for auctions, once thought dead at ICANN, is now being taken seriously.  The decision to award 3 legacy sTLDs has been delayed at least 4 weeks and possibly until Montreal. 
• 3/26/2003  10:00 AM (Rio).ICANN Watch posts comment by Michael Froomkin on today's sTLD proposal, Same Old Shell Game All Over Again
• 3/26/2003  9:00 AM (Rio).  A comprehensive comment on the proposed sTLD expansion has been filed with the ICANN Board, and posted here: sTLD Beauty Contests: An Analysis and Critique of the Proposed Criteria to Be Used in the Selection of New Sponsored TLDs.  [Acrobat]   [HTML]
• 3/26/2003  12:15 AM (Rio).  The first comment has been filed in response to the ICANN Board's Request for Comments on its Criteria to Be Used in the Selection of New Sponsored Top-Level Domains. Read other comments.  File your own comment.
• 3/25/2003  11:30 AM (Rio).  A proposal on Equity Enhancing Auctions, to help span the digital divide, especially in Less Developed Countries, has been posted on the Proposals page.
• 3/25/2003  10:45 AM (Rio).  An FAQ on gTLD auctions has been posted.
• 3/24/2003  5:45 PM (Rio).  A slide show on the McKnight/Mueller proposal, presented to the ICANN Cross-Constituency Meeting in Rio today (Business/IP/ISP/ALAC) is posted on the links page and here.
• 3/24/2003  9:45 AM (Rio).  A new response to the Business Constituency Position Paper on gTLD expansion has been posted. The Inefficiencies of Differentiated Expansion.

The Business Constituency has proposed a taxonomy policy for gTLD expansion, which they call "differentiated expansion."  Under the proposal, no new unsponsored or unrestricted gTLDs would be allowed.  The posted response shows how this policy would lead to gross inefficiencies in the name space and disserve the public interest.

• 3/23/2003 1:05 PM (Rio). This website, and auction proposals, are generating comments on ICANNWatch.org. See here.  These and other links to relevant commentary are added to the links page as we become aware of them.
• 3/23/2003 11:15 AM (Rio). We have added links to various documents produced by the Business Users Constituency and a subcommittee of the GNSO Names Council. Permalinks have been added to the links section of this website. Here are the documents that have been added

--Proposed Statement on TLD Policy posted by Milton Mueller to the ncdnhc-discuss list.

-- Business Constituency Position Paper: A Differentiated Expansion of the Name Space – December 2002.

• 3/20/2003 4:50 PM.  An article on the Mueller/McKnight auction proposal has been posted at IcannWatch.org. Click here for the article. 
• 3/20/2003 4:40 PM. Lawrence Solum and Karl Manheim of Loyola Law School, Loyola Marymount University have posted their policy paper, The Case for gTLD Auctions: A Framework for Evaluating Domain Name Policy.  A longer, heavily-footnoted version of their auction proposal is also available: gTLD Auctions: A Framework for Evaluating Domain Name Policy. 
• 3/20/2003 4:30 PM.  Milton Mueller and Lee McKnight of Syracuse University have posted their White Paper, The post-.COM Internet: A Five-Step Process for Top Level Domain Additions. 
• 3/20/2003 4:20 PM.  This website has been established to provide a clearinghouse of information on auction-based proposals for expansion of the Top Level Domain name space.