Headline Oct 29, 2014/

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A MESSY and expensive row is brewing over new suffixes for Internet addresses.

It is the online equivalent of the landgrabs of the 19th century America.

Early 2012,  the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the outfit in charge of addresses in cyberspace, allowed applications for new suffixes.

That would allow new domains, such as  .microsoft,  .paris, and  .music, to join the 22 existing handles, such as  .com and  .info.

This move has generated excitement, but also controversy. Security experts fret about fraud. Even if the new suffixes flop, brand owners complain that they will have to-

Spend millions buying domains they don't want, just to protect their online identities.

The cost was pitched high to deter time-wasters:

$185,000 to ICANN  to start with, an annual $25,000 and tens of thousands in lawyers' fees.  But such   ''defensive registrations''   will be costly for small businesses and charities-

And a nuisance for big ones, who may have to register multiple domains.

Esther Dyson, who used to chair ICANN's board, has compared the expansion to financial derivatives that add complexity without creating value.

The price for the new names is less a result of the scarcity of online real estate than of greed among powerful domain registries, marketing agencies and lawyers.

ICANN is used to such accusations. Instead, it worries about crippling wave of disputes, whether in its arbitration frame work or in court.

In early April it halted applications for new domains after discovering a technical glitch that may have allowed some applicants to view each others confidential plans. 

The system was rebooted on May22nd  and the law suits loom about that.

Indeed, ICANN  has parked around a third of the  $350 million in application fees it has so far collected in a fund to pay for the legal and other hiccups. Intellectual- property lawyers are notable ingenious.

A big, unprecedented. ill-run, overpriced and technologically suspect expansion of domain names offer rich pickings.

The juiciest target, say several of them, is the way ICANN  plans to process applications 500 at a time, with each handle taking perhaps six months.

Assuming six  (more than 2,000 are already in,  the first will be up and running two to three years before the last ones are.

Rivals can claim unfairness.

ICANN's solution is unique, indeed  -it sets a time, everyone clicks and the closest to the mark are the winners.

Many agree with the  Intellectual Property Constituency. a lobby group for name-owners, that this is   ''complex, untried and subject to gaming ''.

Some applicants are using targets to get to the front of the queue. 

For $25,000  pool.com, a domain-auction company, will try to gets its clients in the first batch   (with a partial refund if it fails).

If disputes bog the process down,  later batches could be pushed back further, making things even worse.

***Who gets what mean more battles***

No one will challenge Disney for disney, but what about  .disneyexperience?

The Honour and Serving of the operational research writing continues. Thank you for reading. And see you on the following one.

With respectful dedication to  '' UN's International Telecommunication Union ''. See you all esteemed Sirs, on  -!WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

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