Companies Vie for Dot.Music Domains

YES ICANN: ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, kicks off its annual meeting in Beijing today, with potentially hundreds of “generic top-level domains” (gTLDs) up for auction, including dot.music. Two of the rivals for the music domain are trying to prevent a full-blown bidding war by showing that they represent the wider community in the music world. The Nashville.-based company Far Further has the backing of the RIAA and close to 40 other trade groups, while a Cyprus businessman, Constantine Roussos, whose company has been doing business as dotMusic Ltd. since 2005, is supported by a number of agencies worldwide, and has filed a legal-rights objection against all other music applications with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). If either can prove to ICANN that it legitimately represents the community of musicians worldwide, it can avoid the domain going to the highest bidder. Amazon and Google have been particularly active in applying for domain names, including music. By April 15, ICANN will publicly notify participants if there are any objections to their requests, with parties given 30 days to respond. (4/8a)