dot coms fight for control of the dot gay domains
Filed by: Nathan Strang
September 21, 2009 4:00 PM
In 2010, ICANN, the organization behind domain name registration, will allow independent registration of new TLDs (Top Level Domains), as long as one has the infrastructure to manage the responsibility, and of course, the cash. This will open up new TLD choices such as ".life," ".eco," ".man," and of course, ".gay," and the competition is growing over who gets the right to manage the new TLDs.
In the battle over ".gay" there are two opponents: The Dot Gay Alliance, and dotGay, LLC. One company is ran by a homosexual editor and publisher, the other a heterosexual business man with a long history in the domain name industry. Both have similar plans to benefit the LGBT population with proceeds from the .gay domain sales, but who should get control?
The Dot Gay Alliance's mission is "to create a reliable and ethical source of funding for LGBT Civil Rights by creating the .GAY web address for the benefit of our community." Founder Joe Dolce promises that at least 51% of the .gay domain purchases under his control will go to benefit philanthropic LGBT causes. Dot Gay Alliance is currently trying to raise as much money as possible in order to foot the bill of $185,000 to register with ICANN. However, with an opponent also looking to register .gay, the rights could go to auction, boosting the registration price to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
DotGay LLC, has a very similar purpose, though its founder is a heterosexual man. Alexander Schubert is a European businessman who also pledges to donate two-thirds of the profit to LGBT causes if his company wins the rights to .gay. However, unlike the Dot Gay Alliance, Schubert's investment in .gay is far more commercial than philanthropic.
No matter who wins, it appears that the .gay TLD will be in good hands, and the cost to register a .gay domain (I have dibs on "mycatis.gay") shouldn't be much more than $15-$20. The pickle is whether the managing rights should be in the hands an LGBT organization, or a highly qualified Domain Name mogul.
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7 Comments
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Fascinating.
Can we actually "advance register" with both and hedge our bets?
Father Tony | September 21, 2009 4:55 PM
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Win/Win?
And I am eagerly awaiting seeing mycatis.gay. Will there be forums?
Liquid | September 21, 2009 5:01 PM
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I would prefer to to be managed by experience. But then again I wouldn't be trying to register one of these domains anyway.
Rob Barton | September 21, 2009 9:35 PM
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Ah - bilerico.gay would be fabulous!
Bil Browning | September 22, 2009 9:27 AM
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I want "gay.gay." And then I could make a "gay" subdomain, just to really be cute.
Alex Blaze | September 22, 2009 9:56 AM
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you mean like gay.gay/gay
GAY GAY GAY
I love it
peter | September 22, 2009 10:33 PM
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it is not correct that the dotgay.com initiative is more commercial. the dotgayalliance is part of the british-virgin-island located and stock market listed top-level-domain-holding/minds+machines network which is operated by a large crowd of investors. let the community decided in which project they believe.
Martino Dresi | September 23, 2009 5:32 AM
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