ICANN's new gTLD plan is all about money

ICANN is about to radically transform the Internet into a corporate theme park with its new gTLD plan. It believes it is operating on some altruistic, community-driven open process and refuses to recognize what it is becoming: A big money machine.

ICANN intends to allow corporations and the powerful to create their own gTLDs. This may allow extensions such as .blog, .weather, .pizza, or .Nike, .Google and so on. The initial application cost will be around $185,000.

R. Shawn Gunnarson, an attorney at Kirton & McConkie, estimates, in a blog post on CircleID,  that ICANN may make as much as $92.5 million if it hits its estimate of 500 applications and questions how ICANN arrived at its application fee.

Kieren McCarthy, general manager of public participation, ICANN, has been responding to blog posts and did so to Gunnarson, writing that his post is "more than a little unfair to ICANN."  

But let's zero in on the essential defense made by McCarthy and it goes to motive. There is nothing less than an "honest and best effort approach" to what ICANN is doing, he writes.

I don't think anyone is questioning the honesty or integrity of the people in ICANN.  But suggesting that money can cloud motive is standing on very safe ground.

An underlying point by Gunnarson's isn't really addressed: That ICANN's revenue may dramatically increase with the new domains. ICANN is leapfrogging over that issue by arguing that it may receive far fewer than 500 applications and its new gTLDs scheme may tank.  If there was too much uncertainty and risk, ICANN wouldn't be doing it.

The new gTLDs will fund more administrative staff and increase ICANN's clout and influencing power. ICANN can still be "revenue netural" and apply this spending in new ways.  In its decade of life, this organization has opened offices in Washington and Brussels and it's paying increasing amounts of the travel cost of its "community."   

ICANN runs a government mandated monopoly. Even though most incomes are falling, ICANN's budget is at $55 million and continues to grow.  

The more revenue that ICANN makes from gTLDs, the more powerful it becomes and power, as someone once wrote, is its own end. This is an old story and ICANN can't pretend "transparency" gives it some kind of immunity. Every aspect of the new gTLD plan is open to question and that includes fundamental questions of motive and money is motive.