The Truth About the .Jobs Affair A Matter of Principles

The Origin of .Jobs 2005 Employ Media receives a charter from ICANN sTLD is to promote “relationship between employer and job seeker” and “to marry the company name directly to its employment opportunities.” Limits registration to individuals engaged in “human resource management.”

2010: Proposed Expansion From “Sponsored” to “Generic” TLD Geocentric names Hollywood.jobs; Chicago.jobs; Nigeria.jobs Occupation-specific names IT.jobs; AssociationManagement.jobs; MeetingPlanner.jobs Dictionary-word names A1.jobs; Diversity.jobs; Best.jobs; Great.jobs

Supporting Employ Media DirectEmployers Association Employer-members of DirectEmployers Association SHRM A small number of organizations that commented publicly on the .JOBS expansion

Those Taking a Stand Against The .Jobs Charter Compliance Coalition Newspaper Association of America American Society of Association Executives American Staffing Association IAEWS Members of the IAEWS + 86% of letters to ICANN

The Allegations-I “This is good for employers” Yet the following are in opposition: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce The Internet Commerce Coalition Information Technology Industry Council

The Allegations-II “This is good for veterans” Yet the following are in opposition: Veterans of Foreign Wars The Army Engineer Association Veterans of Modern Warfare VetJobs MilitaryHire.com

The Allegations-III “This won’t violate trademarks” Yet the following is in opposition: European Trademark Owners Association A Case in Point NativeAmericanJobs.com NativeAmerican.Jobs

The Allegations-IV “This is just an issue with US companies: Yet the following are in opposition: JobServe.com JobStreet.com onrec Seek Workopolis

The Allegations-V “This is only a problem for for-profit companies” Yet the following are in opposition: American Society of Association Executives American Hospital Association Am Board of Quality Assurance & Utilization Review Physicians American Chemical Society American Geographical Society American Institute of Physics

The Allegations-VI “This is just an issue for little, niche job boards” Yet the following are in opposition: CareerBuilder.com Dice Jobing Monster Worldwide Seek Workopolis

ICANN Consideration 274 Comments – 50 times the average for a “new registry service” Only 13% in support – including many members of PDP Council 86% opposed ICANN Board consideration based on inadequate analysis of comments and no investigation

ICANN Reconsideration Request submitted to Governance Committee of the ICANN Board of Directors: .JOBS charter limits registration to human resource managers in support of HR function Expansion would create significant potential for trademark infringement Initial review flawed by inadequate process and staff analysis ICANN has duty to enforce charter compliance and prevent abuse of sponsored TLD award The Governance Committee agreed to proceed with the Coalition’s reconsideration request!

A Matter of Principles Sponsored TLDs should not be used for purposes never contemplated or debated in application process Inadequate process undermines integrity of the new gTLD process and confidence in ICANN’s ability to manage expansion of DNS in fair and predictable way Third party rights, including trademark protection, are endangered

Get Involved http://www.icann.org/en/committees/reconsideration/coalition-questions-to-bgc-14oct10-en.pdf