[ga] [DNDEF] Why it's so important.

[Sotiropoulos <sotiris@hermesnetwork.com>]

Here's an article (from
http://www.inside.com/jcs/Story?article_id=22578&pod_id=13) 
which
underscores the importance of the DNDEF issue:

"Seller's Remorse? DotTV Accused of Grabbing 
Back a $100 Domain Name to
Reoffer It for a Cool Quarter-Million
Firm peddled 'broadband.tv' for a song, then 
reneged, according to a
suit by the would-be buyers.
by Ben Berkowitz and Denise Levin

Thursday , February 01, 2001 09:42 p.m.

Two people may have thought they hit the 
jackpot when they registered
the domain name ''broadband.tv'' with DotTV 
Corporation for a standard
$100 fee last July.
DotTV certainly thought so: The company 
pulled the name back, and tried
to sell it again for a quarter-million 
dollars, according to a lawsuit
filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

DotTV, which is backed by the incubator 
Idealab, licenses domains ending
in .tv, which is the country code assigned to 
the island nation of
Tuvalu. The company licensed the domain from 
Tuvalu in exchange for
minimum revenues to the island nation of $4 
million a year, stock in the
company and a seat on the board. It is one of 
many companies that are
trying to make a business of licensing 
unusual country codes as domain
names, such as .cc, .md and .fm.

A spokesperson for DotTV said the company had 
not yet been served with a
copy of the suit and couldn't comment.

According to the complaint, Bob Abrahams and 
Amy Snively registered the
''broadband.tv'' name on July 12 of last 
year, paying DotTV's standard
$100 registration fee. As part of the 
purchase, they entered into a
registration agreement and received ownership 
contracts from the
company. Such an instantly recognizable name 
pointing toward a
technology with explosive growth potential 
could be exploited directly
or licensed for a substantial markup to a 
third party.P>


The company pulled the name back, and tried 
to sell it again for a
quarter-million dollars, according to a lawsuit.



DotTV, however, quickly ''determined that the 
Domain Name was worth more
than the amount for which DotTV had sold 
it,'' and canceled its
contract, the suit says. Further, the suit 
alleges that DotTV put the
domain name up for sale again, but this time 
at the special price of
$250,000. According to the DotTV Web site, 
broadband.tv is currently
available at a fee of $62,500 per year, with 
a minimum two-year
registration, and a 5 percent increase in the 
renewal fee at the end of
the pre-pay period.

The issue of ultimate ownership of domain 
names has been a contentious
one, with registrars like Network Solutions 
accused by some of treating
domains like rented property, rather than 
property with ownership rights.

The suit, which claims breach of contract and 
promissory fraud, asks for
compensatory, consequential and punitive 
damages in an amount to be
determined at trial. The plaintiffs are 
represented by Michael Grace,
Gregory Sater and Jill Abasto of Grace & Sater."


Sincerely,

Sotiris Sotiropoulos

--
This message was passed to you via the ga-full@dnso.org list.
Send mail to majordomo@dnso.org to unsubscribe
("unsubscribe ga-full" in the body of the message).
Archives at http://www.dnso.org/archives.html