ICANN plan: lawyers' dream and public nightmare

Advertisers slam Internet domain plan - The Hill's Hillicon Valley: "A group of advertisers in a letter on Thursday told the organization that manages the Internet's address system to reconsider its plan to allow for new domain names.

'Implementation of a Program with unlimited (top level domains) is economically unsupportable and likely to cause irreparable harm and damage,' Robert Liodice, president of the Association of National Advertisers, wrote to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

'At the same time, the Program contravenes the legal rights of brand owners and jeopardizes the safety of consumers.'

ICANN, a nonprofit organization, approved a plan in June to allow for the registration of new domain names in addition to traditional domains such as '.com' or '.org.' Beginning in 2012, organizations can register new addresses ending in almost any word or phrase."