France opposes Wine and Vin web domains

France is opposing the creation of new wine and vin web domains, they claim that these could mislead consumers about online wine purchases and jeopordise existing international agreements on wine labelling. Their concern is that the future owner of www.champagne.wine for example could somehow confuse buyers into purchasing champagne instead of sparkling wine. The International Corporation for Names and Numbers (ICANN) globally allocates IP (Internet Protocol addresses) and also oversees domain registries. Recently overturned was the bid by Amazon to have .amazon as a Generic Top Level Domain, as opposed by several South American countries who claim a geographic right to the name. France cannot get its way if Australia or any other country disagrees with France. France are also looking to change the voting system to ensure a majority, by suggesting that ICANN is unfit to manage the DNS (Domain Name System). In fact ICANN is currently more transparent and inclusive than nearly all comparable organisations. If France don't agree then they play into the hands of Russia, China, Iran and other countries who seek to cripple the free and open Internet, by eroding Internet freedom and hindering web innovation. Vive La France!