Re: [ga] Tucows Response to Cochetti Transfer Letter

[Sotiris Sotiropoulos <sotiris@hermesnetwork.com>]

In anticipation of what I'm likely to get as a response from some self-purported
"rocket scientist" or other...

The argument that has been thrown around in an effort to trivialize things is simply
this:

"DNS is software, nothing more."

Well, nobody is denying that.  Microsoft Word is software, so is Adobe FrameMaker,
nothing more...  But what about the "stuff" that people PUT into that software?!  The
software itself presents a tabula rasa every time it is opened.  It's up to the
person(s) who use it to create within it... using language (at least in the two
examples I chose, but the principle holds for all other types of software as well).
Language is something we all use to communicate with.  Nobody OWNS language, it is a
public resource.  When an author creates a work using Word, FrameMaker or whatever,
they use LANGUAGE (even if it's only a title) and they DO have copyright(s) to THAT
work... why is this not the case with domain names?  After all, according to
ICANN[1], domain name "registrants must supply various technical information that
many non-commercial (and probably many commercial) registrants would not likely have
available."  Which implies that the registrants who do register domain names are
performing a technical function when they create domain names.

[1] see footnote #5 at:
http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/0/9b7329ce68c79e458525679800593c10/$FILE/7899icann.pdf



Sincerely,

Sotiris Sotiropoulos

Eric Dierker wrote:

> Sotiris Sotiropoulos wrote:
>
> Clearly, the DNS is beyond the principals who act as "interfaces" to it... so
>
> > what is it?  The Undiscovered Country?!  The Blessed Isles?!  Are registrars
> > kind of like travel companies?  They get you to your destination... a
> > destination the original registrant happens to have CREATED, which they direct,
> > control, have authority over, pay for, fill up with content, redirect, etc...
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Sotiris Sotiropoulos
> >
>
> I think a case could be made that Versign is *Hotel California*.
>
> Eric
>
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