Orientation of proposal

Certain generic domain names must belong to the public sphere, and should in no way be the property of private actors (for example, culture, education, public service, etc.). They should only be used by public actors for missions in the general interest.

The management of national domain names must be entrusted to bodies dedicated to carrying out genuine missions in the public service rather than generating financial profits from monopolistic situations. The purchase of domain names should be taxed at a rate varying as a function of the status of the purchasing entity (.org should be taxed little provided it is reserved by organisations capable of proving their non-profit status, whereas .com, and the new .biz and .pro would be taxed heavily) and its turnover if it is a commercial company.

The proceeds of this taxation, managed at international level, could be used for social and community projects that make use of ICTs.

Context

The problems of domain names are numerous. The following can be mentioned in particular :
  they are managed with a total lack of transparency, without control by citizens (cf. Afnic) in France, without taking into account cultural diversity (cf. the new names brought into service by Icann) ;
  their pricing is arbitrary and takes no account of the status of whoever acquires the name ;
  there are no public domain names (cf. education.com purchased by Vivendi-Universal in the past) ;
  they are subject to speculation : certain "cybersquatters" make clean sweeps of non-attributed domain names in the hope of selling them later for huge sums ;
  those who access the Internet later will be "domainless", stripped of the most significant names.