The UN and the IMF pressure ICANN to prevent cybersquatting of domain names

The United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and 26 other international organizations are pressing the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN, to prevent domain name extensions like .un or .imf from being taken by cyber squatters in an upcoming expansion of domain names. The Inter Governmental Organizations (IGOs) requested this in a letter to ICANN.

ICANN said the explosion of the internet has led to a shortage of possibilities for website names, requiring ICANN to expand options by allowing companies to use their company name or trademark as a top level domain, in stead of the normal extensions such as .org and .com.

The IGOs however fear increased potential for the misleading registration and use of IGO names and acronyms in the domain name system under ICANN's significant expansion plans. Furthermore, the expansion could lead to a related expansion of fraud.

Now, a company can register each version of their name or trademark as a top-level-domain for 185,00 dollar. If a company does not do this, it has to keep an eagle eye on applications to shoot down any potential cybersquatting. However, ICANN also keeps an accurate registry of URLs, but critics say the ICANN fails to do a great job, pointing out registrations to Disney characters with invalid addresses and telephone numbers.

Reference: Reuters.com