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H.R. 2417, the Dot Kids Name Act of 2001.
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet
Mr. David Hernand
Mr.
Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, my name is David Hernand.
I am Chief Executive Officer of New.net, Inc., a market-driven domain
name registry business headquartered in Sherman Oaks, California, and started in
May 2000 by idealab!, the Internet incubator.
New.net is building the Internet's leading market-driven domain name
registry business by selling domain names with logical, easy-to-remember
extensions to make the Internet easier to navigate for consumers and businesses
alike. Our extensions include
such user-friendly names as .shop, .family, .church, .club, .auction, and .movie. New.net
believes that by allowing web addresses to end in more descriptive words,
websites will be better able to communicate what they are offering, and
consumers will be able to find things more easily. New.net is helping to satisfy the growing public demand for
shorter, more descriptive domain names that has been left unmet by the
increasing scarcity of names ending in .com and .net. Currently,
consumers can access New.net domain names in one of two ways-either through one
of the Internet service providers (ISPs) around the world that provide access to
New.net domain names through a simple network upgrade, or through a software
application that New.net makes available directly to users from its website.
Both of these methods work transparently for users within the existing
Internet infrastructure and currently enable more than 71 million Internet users
worldwide to view New.net's domain names. The
".kids" extension is one of the first names we successfully released in the
market. Since March 2001, New.net
has operated the .kids" extension in partnership with .KIDS Domains, Inc.
New.net has been the technical facilitator of the. kids extension,
ensuring that it can be accessed by millions of parents and children in the U.S.
At present, 44% of U.S. households can access .kids sites and the other
New.net extensions. .KIDS Domains has served as the registry for .kids; it has
established rigorous Terms of Use and Content Guidelines that sites must adhere
to in order to be included in the .kids space.
New.net
agreed to work with .KIDS Domains because we were impressed with the
well-conceived, comprehensive nature of .KIDS Domains' policies.
We immediately appreciated the value and usefulness of a .kids
space for parents and children. Releasing
a ".kids" extension fit well with New.net's mission of giving consumers
access to more descriptive and relevant domain name addresses than is allowed by
the current ICANN system. An
example is Adopting.Kids which had the web address adoptanangel.org.
Adopt An Angel International is a non-profit licensed adoption agency
located in Jasper, Georgia. The
Internet provides Adopt An Angel with a powerful tool to achieve its goal of
helping homeless children across the world find a family and a home.
The Internet is uniquely suited to Adopt An Angel's mission, and yet
this group does not have a large advertising budget for promoting its services
or its web address. An easy-to-find
address is therefore critical to its success.
The new address for the group--Adopting.kids--provides Adopt An Angel
with the ability to reach parents far more easily with a descriptive and simple
to remember name. Another
example is Heart.kids, a site dedicated to providing support for children with
Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, a serious congenital heart defect that affects
approximately 1 in every 5,000 babies born.
This organization had been using LeftHeart.org as its site, but the
ability to use the more descriptive Heart.kids enables this group to clearly
indicate that this site focuses on a medical condition that affects children. A
final example is an organization, Jumpstart, that pairs highly-trained college
students with preschool children struggling in Head Start or other early
learning programs. The name
jumpstart.org was not available, having been taken by another organization, so
the group was using jstart.org. With the opening of .kids, this organization was able to get
a more descriptive name, jumpstart.kids, that is easy to remember and clearly
indicates to users that it is a site focused on children. As
you know, .KIDS Domains applied to ICANN for adoption of a .kids extension but
its request was rejected. While
ICANN did not state explicitly why it did not approve .kids (and scores of other
new TLD requests), in the case of .kids it appeared that ICANN was concerned
that it would not be able to reach a broad, worldwide agreement on what was
appropriate for "kid-friendly" content.
New.net's
entry into the domain name business enabled .KIDS Domains to make the .kids
extension available, without harm to the integrity of the Internet
infrastructure or the ICANN system, and to the great benefit of parents and
children. As a private company,
New.net has been able to offer a much-needed and desired service free from the
limitations of the current ICANN TLD selection process and in an open manner
which empowers parents to make their own decisions about what is right for their
families. We respectfully submit
that the New.net and .KIDS Domains experience provides a model for, and proof
of, how market forces can work effectively to prove the value of a domain name.
As shown by our work with .KIDS Domains, we believe that the private
sector can play a leading role in providing a "testbed" for the introduction
of innovative and creative domain names that are valuable and useful to
consumers and that should be widely accessible to Internet users. Given
our positive experience with releasing the ".kids" domain in partnership
with .KIDS Domains, New.net is pleased to share with you our views regarding
H.R. 2417 introduced by Congressman Shimkus and Congressman Markey.
We also are pleased to address potential proposals to amend the
legislation to establish .kids as a second level domain within the .us country
code top level domain ("ccTLD").
New.net commends Congressmen Shimkus and Markey
for introducing H.R. 2417 to highlight the benefits of establishing a
".kids" space on the Internet which will result in a community of
kid-friendly, "safe" websites dedicated to children.
In our view, the introduction of this measure also highlighted the
broader concern that current ICANN processes and procedures for selecting new
top level domains are far too limited and slow, and that American consumers and
businesses are not getting the full convenience and benefits they could be
getting from the Internet as a result. New.net
believes that the consideration of this legislation puts a spotlight on the
strong need to improve the system by which top level domain names are selected
so that consumers benefit and marketplace competition and innovation are allowed
to flourish. We fully agree with Congressmen Shimkus and Markey that
establishment of a .kids top level domain would be extremely useful to
consumers.
As noted above, the current system that ICANN
uses for selecting TLDs has not successfully resulted in the establishment of
the .kids TLD, despite the value it would add for Internet users wanting to use
it. New.net therefore understands that other, short-term options
may be considered to accelerate the broader availability of a .kids site without
having to confront the restrictions of the current ICANN system.
One way that the artificial limitations of the ICANN selection process
could be avoided is through an expanded use of the
".us" ccTLD involving the creation of second level domains on a
competitive basis. New.net understands that the Subcommittee may consider
a proposal to amend H.R. 2417 as introduced in order to establish ".kids" as
a second level domain within ".us."
New.net believes that this proposal has merit and has the potential to
serve as a model for invigorating the ".us" top level domain effectively.
For this proposal to be successful we underscore, however, the need for
it to be carefully crafted with key pro-competition and pro-consumer
requirements. Absent these provisions, the expansion of the ".us"
extension could result in unfair competition, artificial limitations on second
level domains and wholly unjust enrichment of certain commercial entities over
others. Given the origins of the
".us" domain as a public asset, it is critical that the expansion of its
uses, particularly with respect to second level domains, accrue to the benefit
of the general public according to fair and competitive principles. At
a minimum, we have the following recommendations regarding the establishment of
.kids as a second level domain within the .us ccTLD: 1. If .kids is established as a second level domain within
the .us ccTLD, a registry operator must be selected to manage it.
This entity should be selected by NTIA through a competitive application
process, and one of the key and explicit factors in the selection of the entity
should be the demonstration of experience in operating services designed to
protect children on the Internet. In
addition, the registry for the ".us" ccTLD should not be eligible to serve
as the second level domain registry operator.
2. Existing domain name holders under ".kids" should be
able to take advantage of a "sunrise" period in which they have the first
right to be registered under ".kids.us" (e.g., for a reasonable
"sunrise" period, the entity that has registered and is operating
"tutor.kids" should have the first right to register as "tutor.kids.us",
if this entity so desires.) Without
this provision, the establishment of a .kids second level domain would be unfair
to existing customers of ".kids" and would be tantamount to
"nationalizing" a private American company (i.e. .KIDS Domains, Inc.,
through its partnership with New.net) that took the risk of introducing a good
idea to the market, investing in it and developing it. New.net
further believes that taking this course of action with .kids will provide a
crucial learning experience that could well be extended to other second-level
domains under .us. Extension of these and other pro-competitive principles to
other second level domains could provide additional opportunities for the
American entrepreneurial spirit to flourish on the Internet and for consumers to
benefit from a diversity of companies and organizations competing to provide
needed services. New.net
firmly believes that the marketplace is a powerful consensus engine, providing a
direct and immediate way for consumers to express their collective wisdom about
which names they find most useful. In
a very short time, the New.net business model has provided a "testbed"
demonstrating the popularity and value of user-friendly domain names and
highlighting the failures in the current domain name selection process that have
denied Internet users these desired benefits and conveniences.
With the proper safeguards in place, diversity, the American
entrepreneurial spirit, and creativity can flourish through the competitive
provision of second level domains within the ".us" ccTLD.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the privilege of appearing before the Subcommittee today, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
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