[Latingp] Sharp S

[Michael Bauland]

Hi Bill,

On 20.12.2019 01:32, Bill Jouris wrote:
> Dear colleagues, 
> 
> It seems to me that we have two options to address the IP's concerns
> about Sharp S: 
> 
> 1) we can say something like 
> 
>     "Sharp S can only occur when used in a valid German word or name. 
>     Thus it cannot be the first letter in a TLD, must follow a vowel,
>     etc."  
> 
> At which point we will need to reference an authoritative source on what
> are valid German words and valid German names. 
> 
> 2) we can say something like 
> 
>     "The variant relationship between double S (ss) and Sharp S exists
>     because of different usages in different places where German is the
>     official language.  But that relationship is otherwise irrelevant
>     for constructing TLDs.  From the beginning, TLDs have existed which
>     were not valid words.  That practice has continued as new gTLDs (not
>     to mention ccTLDs) were established.  It is not our intention to
>     police German spelling rules.  Therefore a Sharp S can occur at the
>     beginning of a TLD, following a consonant (including following
>     another Sharp S), etc."  
> 
> 
> I confess that my initial inclination was to go with option 1.  But
> Michael has convinced me that the second option is more reasonable. 

I still think 2 is the correct choice. People are registering labels not
(necessarily) words.

I admit it's a theoretical case, but what if some fancy German start-up
(whose founder is some Mrs. Maß) decides to call her company "ßam". The
company turns out to be a huge success and their logo is visible all
over Europe. Now they're so big, they want to get their own TLD (like
many other companies have done before). But, hey, wait, they cannot
register .ßam, because a small group of people (call them the Latin GP)
decided it's not a real word.

They could very understandably wonder why a company called GMX is
allowed to have .gmx but they themselves can't have .ßam, while both
labels are not words.

Michael

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