Halt domain name bidding, lawmakers say

A bipartisan group of House members, along with Senate Democrats, are asking the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to postpone plans for opening up the market of domain name endings, such as dot-music, in the wake of consumer cybersecurity concerns.

ICANN, the global nonprofit that governs Web address names, is set to allow applicants, starting in January 2012, to propose an array of generic top-level domains, or gTLDs. Committees in the House and Senate that oversee commerce are cautioning the initiative will make Internet users and businesses perhaps infinitely more susceptible to fraud. The goal of expanding the naming system is to better protect trademarks, stimulate innovation and boost competition.

But the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and Goodwill Industries all have called for fixes to address mounting uneasiness about the program, according to a Dec. 21 letter signed by 17 GOP and Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. On Friday, Federal Trade Commission officials wrote leaders a letter pressing for a smaller, slower expansion.

"Given these widespread concerns, a short delay will allow interested parties to work with ICANN and offer changes to alleviate many of them, specifically concerns over law enforcement, cost and transparency," the House members wrote. They did not suggest a specific time period. An aide for the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said the panel will issue a similar statement shortly announcing it also will request a postponement.

"Many stakeholders are not convinced that ICANN's process has resulted in an acceptable level of protection," the House letter stated. Last week, an Energy and Commerce subcommittee brought in representatives from the legal, business and domain name registration communities to better understand the planned expansion. The lawmakers said a broad assortment of interest groups ranging from U.S. companies to large nonprofit organizations support delaying the program.

The problem with growing the compendium of names is that it could provide more avenues for thieves to dupe Web surfers into purchasing fake goods, disclosing personal information, or divulging sensitive financial information, say critics. Even now, scammers try to register phony sites with names that mimic legitimate sites, such as PayPall.com. With the opportunity to tweak spellings and add all manner of address extensions, perhaps PayPall.bank, the number of imitation sites could increase, they argue.

Currently, ICANN does not have an accurate directory that lists the identities and contact information of the people operating websites, FTC officials say. Nor does the organization have the staff to vet the more than 1,500 incoming applications expected for risks, they argue.

ICANN officials have said the new initiative contains additional safeguards, including required intellectual property rights protection and stronger scrutiny to keep out bad actors. In response to FTC's letter, the corporation's president and chief executive officer, Rod Beckstrom, said ICANN has pledged to work with FTC on consumer safety matters.