.VIN new gTLD: reply to the Government of France

Holly Shadow, LLC (Donuts Inc.) just published its answer to the French GAC Early Warning.

The answer is interesting and explains .VIN is not only used to qualify wine:

"This so noted, we respectfully further submit that the .VIN string may be legitimately applied to terms and uses unrelated to wine. As but one example, VIN is a commonly used acronym for Vehicle Identification Number in the U.S. This is a unique serial number used to identify vehicles. There are other potential uses for the three letters V, I and N—for example, the website www.vin.com is run by the Veterinarian Information Network as a web information resource for veterinary doctors."

...but Registrants (people who buy domain names) with the intention to use these domains to sell wine illegally could have them terminated:

"Donuts will monitor name usage to prevent certain types of abusive activity and may terminate registrations if registrants do not follow all applicable laws. For example, it would be grounds for termination if a .VIN registrant used the gTLD to illegally produce or sell wine."

Regarding French Geographical Indications ("Indicators" in the answer), Donuts (Holly Shadow, LLC) says it has been consulting with wine industry experts and would welcome any constructive advice the Government of France may have. This is being discussed at the moment according to my sources but the text also says: "Donuts does not intend to block second level names beyond those detailed in Specification 5."

Specification 5 can be read on page 285 of the Applicant Guidebook.

If I already have an idea of how all this is going to end, I understand the position of the applicant who has been following the methodology provided by ICANN with its Applicant Guidebook. 

The official document is available online (.VIN answer is available down the page).

More GAC Early Warnings (updated)

Iran submitted Early Warnings from its GAC Member(s) after the deadline announced by ICANN:

A few things I noticed:

• Back-end registry "Afilias Limited" and "dot Wine Limited" (Famous Four Media) are 2 of the 3 applicants who received an Early Warning for their .WINE application;
• Alcohol was targeted in Iran's Early Warnings but...my bar seems to be larger than any bar you can find in Iran;
• Regarding wine applications...well...no one speaks French in Iran and I am happy about that because the Reasons/Rationales for the warning do not concern any form of protection of our fantastic industry but a conflict with "ethical standards":
  
  "According to believes and values of Islamic Republic of Iran the applied for new gTLD is in conflict with ethical standards. From rational view point any action that lead to agitation and irritation of the humanity and faith; and have deleterious behavioral impacts which are not permitted.
  The applied for new gTLD can encourage people on doing non-religious, unethical and non rational actions.
  The applicant has not worked on any legislation or roles to prevent the registration of domain names under applied for TLD in Islamic and other sensitive countries, which is an aggression to the sensitive communities’ beliefs and regulations, causing many Unpredictable results."

Note that the Early Warnings that were submitted were posted as a courtesy to inform applicants, and for transparency into the process. If applicants would like to discuss the concerns with applicants who have filed late that is certainly encouraged. However, there is no "consideration" or "rejection" by the GAC of Early Warnings if they come late, as Early Warnings serve as a mechanism for individual GAC members/Governments to voice their concerns on certain applications.

The GAC support informs that Early Warnings are not consensus based within the GAC.

The list of late Early Warnings is published here.

Update: GAC Early Warning for .VIN

This post follows my previous post regarding the answer received from the French GAC.

GAC members were kind enough to explain to me the process followed by the French Government to have a GAC Early Warning raised.

My English is not good enough to translate the sentence after so I will leave as it is, it French, and so non French speakers - just like it is the case for most ICANN publications - I will request English readers to learn French to understand what is written :

;-)

"Dans le processus retenu, il appartenait en effet aux ministères techniques de formuler des demandes d'alertes sur les projets qu'ils avaient identifiés comme problématiques. La liste définitive a été fixée lors d'une réunion interminitérielle à Matignon.

Le ministère des Affaires étrangères et le ministère des Finances ne jouent dans ce cadre qu'un rôle de relais entre les ministères de référence et le Board de l'ICANN.

Aussi, afin de discuter des motifs qui ont conduit à une alerte précoce sur le .vin, je vous invite si vous le souhaitez à vous rapprocher du ministère de l'Agriculture, et notamment de..."

As usual, I will come back with an answer, if I receive one.

11 December 2012:
I was explained the reason why .VIN received an Early Warning and not .WINE and I am afraid I won't be giving more details. End of the story.

French GAC Early Warning for the .VIN new gTLD

I keep wondering why the French Governments submitted an early warning for the .VIN new gTLD and not for .WINE.

I just wrote to the two French GAC Representatives with the following question:

"Je souhaite connaître la raison de la publication de l'Early Warning concernant le .VIN alors que le .WINE n'en a pas reçu du gouvernement Français."

Translation: "I would like to know the reason why an Early Warning was submitted for the .VIN new gTLD and not for .WINE".

The French GAC representatives are:

Laurent Ferrali
Chargé de mission Gouvernance de l'Internet et satellites

DGCIS -- Service des Technologies de l'Information et de la communication

and

Camille Angué
Ministère des affaires étrangères et Européennes
Direction générale de la mondialisation, du développement et des partenariats
Sous-direction de l'audiovisuel extérieur et des technologies de communication

Gouvernance de l'Internet

With their approval, and if they answer me, I will come back with an answer.