Senator Jay Rockefeller Asks ICANN To Kill .sucks Domains

Pardon the obvious pun, but a US Senator thinks one of ICANN’s new generic top-level domains … well … sucks.

West Virginia’s Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, sent a letter to ICANN on Wednesday (PDF version) calling the pending .sucks gTLD “little more than a predatory shakedown scheme.”

Rockefeller is concerned that the name, if approved, will force businesses and individuals to spend potentially significant amounts of money on defensive domain registrations. He called .sucks “a gTLD with little or no public interest value, and said the domain’s business model seems to be to “force large corporations, small businesses, non-profits, and even individuals, to pay ongoing fees to prevent seeing the phrase ‘sucks’ appended to their names on the Internet.”

“In my opinion, it is not in the public interest to approve this gTLD,” he wrote.

The .sucks gTLD is still in contention. Three companies are seeking to run the registry, including Vox Populi, which is already taking pre-registrations without even having secured the right to operate the .sucks registry. The company is offering to reserve names now at $2,500 each — a price that’ll go up to $25,000 per domain during the 30-day “sunrise” period.

Donuts, one of the biggest applicants for the new gTLDs, is also aiming to run the .sucks registry. A company spokesperson told MarketWatch.com that the domain does have positive uses, such as a domain like BullyingSucks.com.