[CCWG-ACCT] Resolution of Mission Language related to regulation and contract

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Tue, Nov 24, 2015 at 05:14:56PM +0000, Burr, Becky wrote:
> 
> 1.     The prohibition on the regulation of “content” is not intended to prevent ICANN policies from taking into account the semantic meaning of domain names.
> 

Could I suggest a friendly amendment?  Perhaps "taking into account
issues with respect to domain name registrations as such"?  Or "taking
into account the use of domain names as identifiers in various natural
languages"?  Many of us are at regular pains to point out that "the
semantic meaning of domain names" is a empty set, since domain names
as such are arbitrary and have no language associated with them (and
might not be in a language at all -- com and org are not in themselves
meaningful strings).  In any case, I don't think you want even a
generous reading of that, because if we get into issues around the
meaning of domain names, we are almost certainly on the slippery slope
to regulating content anyway.

It would be _really bad_ if any suggestion that domain names had in
themselves semantic meaning made it into the bylaws.

Best regards,

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com