Sorry, Brett. No set of constituencies that provides a special place for
"trademark interests" and does not ALSO include a special, reserved place for
"free expression/public interest interests" is not acceptable. I don't care
what political deals you think it is necessary to cut, protecting trademarks
is no more important than protecting the right of individuals, organizations,
and small businesses to make legitimate use of names that certain trademark
owners happen to think belong to them. There must be a balance. I won't
accept your proposal as is and I urge all other members of ORSC and BWG and
anyone else who cares about principle not to do so.
And no, that general grab-bag of "non-commercial interests" is in no way an
acceptable substitute for a public interest membership component.
It's an easy problem to fix. Please fix it.
--MM
Bret A. Fausett wrote:
> 2.3 Constituencies.
>
> The constituencies described herein are an initial set of constituencies.
> Further constituencies may be created, deleted or merged based on
> Section 3.2 of these bylaws. The constituencies are:
>
> 1. COMMERCIAL AND BUSINESS: entities with Internet interests engaged
> in commerce or business, including, but not limited to, organizations of
> commercial and business entities.
>
> 2. NON-COMMERCIAL REGISTRANTS: Non-commercial groups, bodies and
> associations, including, but not limited to, the following:
>
> * Associations and groups of users of the Internet
> * Governmental (central, regional and local) users;
> * Hospitals, clinics and other health facilities;
> * Museums, Libraries and other custodians of the cultural heritage.
> * Non-Governmental public sector and public services;
> * Universities, Research Institutes and Schools;
>
> 3. ISP AND CONNECTIVITY PROVIDERS: IP network operators and service
> providers, i.e., entities operating name servers for clients and offering
> Internet connectivity to third parties.
>
> 4. REGISTRARS: entities that provide a service to Internet users of
> registering second level domain names in top level domains (TLDs) (or
> registering third level domain names in the case of TLDs that have
> established categories of second level domains).
>
> 5. REGISTRIES: entities authorized by the Corporation to publish
> authoritative TLD zones in one or more generic or country-code TLD zones.
>
> 6. TRADEMARK AND ANTI-COUNTERFEITING INTERESTS: entities including,
> but not limited to trademark owners and groups of owners, who are
> interested is the protection of trademarks or the effort to stop
> trademark counterfeiting and infringement.
