The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse Letter

As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will begin accepting applications for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) on January 12, 2012. By most estimates, the domain space will increase as never before and some groups fear that cyber squatting abuse will rise with this expansion.

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) has recently drafted a letter asking for the U.S. Congress to reexamine existing cyber-squatting legislation, and the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) from 1999. In the words of the organization:

"In order for the ACPA to be effective today and in the future, it needs to be revised to make cyber-squatting unprofitable and too risky to undertake. CADNA's campaign aims to spur Congress to sufficiently improve ACPA before domains in new gTLDs become available for registration - this way, cyber-squatters in .COM and other popular extensions will be forced to return or delete infringing domains and abandon the practice before they have the opportunity to expand into the new gTLD space. CADNA believes that resetting the bar in this way will lessen the burden on trademark owners because there will be less urgency to register their trademarks defensively in new gTLDs like .NYC, .MUSIC and .ANYTHING else that comes to light."

What are your views on this most recent move by ICANN? Do you support CADNA? Do you see this new opening will become a new outlet for nefarious internet activity?