> bound to inaction by charter
That's probably too extreme, but I love it as a starting point / baseline!
Re:ICANN Delays .ORG Sale Approval
by thaumasiotes on Monday December 16, 2019 @09:03AM
(#21803023)
What's the problem supposed to be with new TLDs?
You can read more at [1] - in short, critics of the new gTLDs would argue that:
1. It doesn't deliver the claimed increase the supply of domain names, as no-one would build a business or brand on whatever.info without securing whatever.com
2. It does shake down domain registrants for cash - if you already own whatever.com you'd better get whatever.info and whatever.sucks before someone else squats them.
3. These factors mean .info domains and suchlike are a stereotype of sketchy sites, which is a negative feedback loop.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=ICANN&oldid=93014...
If you believe that, hypothetically the best choice would be some sort of private nonprofit, independent of the government but bound to inaction by charter.
Whether being directly controlled by government would be an improvement is somewhat debatable - would lawmakers be reasonably hands-off, like they are with things like GPS and NIST time services? Or would the opportunity to block pornhub/piratebay/wikileaks prove irresistible?