Re: [ga] Jonathan Cohen, hander-out of domain names

[Dan Birchall <djb@scream.org>]

On Tue, Oct 19, 1999 at 11:09:02AM -0400, Michael Sondow wrote:
> Jonathan Cohen, quoted at the Industry Canada Domain and Trademark
> Workshop, Ottawa 1997:
>       "I don't think we should hand out domains with 
>        generic names, I mean some guy has patents.com 
>        and that's just not right."

A two-year old quote.  Joy.  Does he even hold the same views now?  Do
any of us hold the same views we held in 1997?  How many of us remember
the state of the domain issue in 1997?  Can someone check with Jon to
see if he still feels this way?

> What does Mr. Cohen, slated for a seat on the ICANN Board, mean by
> "I don't think we should hand out domains"? Who is the "we"? ICANN?
> The ICANN Board? Himself, Jon Cohen?

Uh... ICANN didn't even exist in 1997.   Given that the quote is from
the Industry Canada Domain and Trademark Workshop, I think this is a
silly question.  A fairly safe guess might be that Jon felt whoever
handed out domain names in Canada shouldn't hand out generic domain
names to companies that should be registering their trade names instead.

> Is that Mr. Cohen's new function on the ICANN Board: to decide which
> domain names are given out? 

Got me!  Anyway, even though you tried to somehow relate irrelevant remarks
made years ago to ICANN, I'll dignify you with some hopefully rational
commentary on the issue raised. ;)

I disagree with any assertion that generic domains should not be handed 
out, period.  But I do think they're best allocated to sites that provide 
some sort of indexing, or search, or whatever, and aren't affiliated with 
a single provider of the product.  c|net's computers.com is an acceptable 
example, IMO.  Another good option would be allocating them to trade 
organizations.

Do I think this should be a hard-and-fast rule?  Not really.  This is
the Internet, after all. :)  But I'm more inclined to visit yogurt.com
if it's an informational resource run by an independent entity or the
Yogurt Makers Association or whatever, than if it's the company site
of Dannon or Yoplait.

Of course, this kinda makes sense - if you've got a brand name, folks
who want to find you will look under that.  If GM, Ford or DaimlerChrysler
registered "cars.com" it'd just be petty.

-- 
Dan (Shag) Birchall, sysadmin and webslinger.
Hacker ex-slacker hiker 'rycher biker Quaker.
Gen-Xceptional.  Visit http://dan.scream.org/