An International Chamber of Commerce panel has denied businessman Constantine Roussos’ objections against competing applications for the .music TLD. Eight applications had been filed for the new domain, including one from CGR E-Commerce, a unit of Roussos’ group of companies. He launched the music.us website to promote his application in 2005.
Importantly, Roussos has rallied the wide support of musicians, music industry professionals and music lovers. The petition to support his application, posted on his website, was signed by over 1.5 million people.
However, competing applications also came from serious players such as Amazon and Google. Roussos attempted to sideline them by filing objections against all the rival applications for the disputed domain name – except his own, naturally – trying to prove that none of them reflected the interests of the music community as fully as his application did.
Yet, the ICC panel chairman said in his conclusion that “music appeals to nearly all mankind.” Therefore, no group of people, however large, can position itself as a “music community” and claim to be a mouthpiece for its interests. This provided the grounds for denying Roussos’ objections. The fight for .music goes on.
