The dot-com monopoly could be nearing the end.
ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, kicks off its annual meeting in Beijing today as it moves closer to freeing up potentially hundreds of new top-level domains to the public.
Competition to land some of the more popular domains is fast and furious. In all, there are 1,930 applicants vying for a wide variety of domains that will eventually augment the .com, .net and .org. that are the most common endings for Internet addresses. The process will add hundreds more with what are called generic top-level domains (gTLDs).
“It’s never been done before,” said Ben Crawford, chief of London-based CentralNic, which has been a consultant for more than 60 applicants. “It’s breaking totally new ground.”
One of the more hard-fought gTLD names up for grabs is the one for .music, which has attracted much attention.
Two of the rivals are striving to short-circuit a full-blown auction by showing that they represent the wider community in the music world: a Nashville, Tenn.-based company called Far Further, which has the backing of the Recording Industry Association of America and close to 40 other trade groups; and a Cyprus businessman, Constantine Roussos, whose company has been doing business as dotMusic Ltd. since 2005, and has backing from a number of agencies across the globe.
If either can prove to ICANN that it legitimately represents the community of musicians worldwide, it can avoid the domain going to the highest bidder at auction.
“If you can prove you have community status, it gives you kind of a trump card,” said Crawford, who will be in Beijing this week jockeying for his clients. “You have to be able to demonstrate that you do represent the community.”
Amazon and Google have been particularly active in applying for domain names. Amazon is reportedly seeking 76 gTLDs, including one for .music. Google is also in the hunt for .music; it has applied for 101 names altogether.
In a bid to strengthen his hand, Roussos has filed a legal-rights objection against all other .music applications with the World Intellectual Property Organization. “It is clear that if ICANN grants the applied-for .music gTLD to any of these applicants, it will create intended material harm to us [and] take unfair advantage of and unjustifiably impair the distinctive character and goodwill reputation of our .music-related trademarks,” he claimed.
By April 15, ICANN will publicly notify participants if there are any objections to their requests; parties will have 30 days to respond. –Keith J. Kelly
Stockman & trade
Former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman is quick to criticize in his new, hard-hitting book, “The Great Deformation.” He blames Wall Street for taking the economy hostage and putting companies in crippling debt that has still not been repaid.
He also takes aim at The Blackstone Group, where he was a partner, saying that by 2006, years after he left, “it succumbed to the mania of the hour and abandoned most of [its] old-time disciplines.”
What he does not mention in any detail is what he did after leaving Blackstone: He formed a private-equity firm, Heartland Industrial Partners, in 1999 amid much fanfare.
Mostly, Stockman bought companies through leveraged buyouts in the cyclical auto industry, where it is risky for businesses to carry too much debt.
A former colleague told On the Money that Stockman “was known as Frankenstein because he had a vision and did not care about the economic model.”
His highly leveraged companies soon struggled, cut research and development, and collapsed. Former Heartland partner Dan Tredwell in a 2011 interview said investors like Michigan’s public pension plan ultimately would get back about half the roughly $1.2 billion they invested. Stockman exited the firm in 2005.
Stockman’s publicist told On the Money he does discuss one of his worst investments, Collins & Aikman, in depth toward the end of the book, but he never mentions his firm, which was supposed to be his legacy.–Josh Kosman
Kith & Kim
This week brings the launch of yet another Kardashian book: “Malibu Nanny: Adventures of the Former Kardashian Nanny.” (That’s Kim Kardashian to the left, as if you didn’t know.)
The book just launched on Amazon for Kindle and in paperback, and at BarnesandNoble.com.
Co-author Pam Behan says that major publishers were interested, but “were pushing me for juicier, exaggerated details on the Kardashian/Jenner family,” so she and her co-author, Sara Christenson, decided to self-publish “to tell the story in a more truthful way.”
So far, 7.3 million people have viewed a free online version, said Behan.–Julie Earle-Levine