Nobody can make a website with the address grannysmith.apple — why? Because a company that makes computers says so. Simply absurd.
@rlamacraft No one can make a website with the address grannysmith.swiley.net. Why? Because that's how namespaces work.
@swiley By that logic, we should hand .net over to Microsoft.
@Parienve Why? That's not related.
Anyone can apply for gtlds: https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/global-support/faqs/faqs-en
@swiley
Also, the application costs around $200k, so that's far from realistic for the vast majority of people.
@Parienve We only need a few tlds though. It's not like apple is really getting special treatment.
@Parienve That would be fine if the .net tld hadn't already existed IMO. It looks like Apple themselves applied for and created .apple https://icannwiki.org/.apple
@swiley
Sorry, I more meant that defending Apple's monopoly on .apple even when the use doesn't infringe on their trademark would be akin to letting Microsoft have .net, since they have a trademark on .NET