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We propose that a system similar to the gTLD-MoU be instituted to allow international representation, organization, and effective conflict resolution. After considering the U.S. Green Paper, the gTLD-MoU plan, as well as the current naming system, we feel that a variation of the gTLD-MoU plan provides the most promise for handling the current naming problems discussed elsewhere in our presentation.

International Committee

The regulating body shall be an international committee with representatives from Internet and international organizations, very similar to the POC (Policy Oversight Committee) recommended in the gTLD-MoU. We feel that since the Internet has grown beyond the control of the United States (or any one nation, for that matter), that the regulating body should reflect the global nature of the Internet itself. This body would be responsible for making decisions regarding things such as the number of registrars (see below), the requirements for registrars and the removal of registrars that did not comply with the commitee's regulations.

Trademarks Checked

The application procedure for a domain name will include checks to make sure that the requested domain name does not infringe upon trademarks, avoiding extortion and grabbing almost entirely as a result, and also limiting confusion. Due to the growing number of sites on the Internet and the inevitable similarity of na mes, the confusion problem cannot be completely solved, but through our proposal, the trademark infringements that cause many of these problems will be greatly reduced. To facilitate this process, we propose that the governing committee work with the Worl d Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to create a searchable database of trademarks. While it would be impossible to create a complete directory, even a partial directory could help alleviate problems with the registration of a domain name before th e name is registered. This way a person or corporation could be stopped from registering a trademarked domain name, rather than forcing the company to attack the domain holder after they have already registered the name. This would effectively eliminate cases like those involv ing candyland.com and kaplan.com

New top level domains

Like other proposals, we call for the creation of seven new top level domain names (TLDs) to relieve the pressure on the current generic TLDs (.com, .org, .net). These limited domains are beginning to fill up, causing conflicts among organizations looking for domain names. The seven new domains wo uld be the ones recommended by WIPO in the gTLD-MoU:

• .firm - for firms or businesses
• .store - for businesses offering items for sale
• .web - for organizations focusing on Web topics
• .arts - for organizations promoting the arts stressing the arts
• .nom - for servers that provide a personal reference
• .info - for organizations focused on providing information
• .rec - for organizations providing recreation

The governing committee will have the authority to create new top level domain names as it feels necessary. Groups, companies and individuals will only be granted a name under a certain TLD if they are part of that group. This will be enforced by the respective registrar (see next section), discouraging the buying out of all TLDs of a certain name (buying mcdonalds.com and mcdonalds.org, for example).

Registries

Like the U.S. Green Paper plan, each TLD will be run by an organization known as a "registry." The registry would be nonprofit and responsible for maintaining a list of all of the registered domain names and their corresponding IP addresses, providing a function much like that of NSI but only handling a single TLD and not making a profit. In addition, the registries would be required to provide functions such as adding, removing and listing names to all registrars (see next section) equally.

Registrars

Registrars would be the link between the registries and the users, providing users with the ability to register domain names. These organizations would register names, assuring that duplications would not occur by using the searchable list of trademarks compiled by WIPO and the list of registered domain names compiled by the registries.

Conflict Resolution

We propose that domain name disputes should be arbitrated by a panel or panels authorized by the governing committee. The international makeup of the panel will help ensure that decisions can effectively be made between organizations from different countr ies. The decisions of these organizations shall be binding upon the domain name registrars. Grounds for reassigning a domain name will include conflicts with preexisting world trademarks and trademark infringement by domain names that attempt to steal use rs from a well-established Internet site through the use of confusingly similar domain names.

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This proposed system would not be perfect, but every system to date that has been suggested to correct the problems with domain names has its flaws. Rather than attempt to solve the problem by overlegislating, we are instead proposing a system that would include only those restrictions necessary to dramatically decrease the current flaws of domain names and which would still be flexible enough, through the somewhat general description of registries and registrars, as well as through the ability to add ne w TLDs as needed, to apply to future changes in the Internet. Few people would have guessed ten years ago that the World Wide Web would be as popular and widespread as it is today; our proposal can support that growth and the modifications it requires, w hile still maintaining a sense of structure and organization. For these reasons, we sincerely hope that the eventual solution to the problems with domain names is one in line with our proposal.