RE: [wg-b] RE: opportunity to pre-empt, or license to infringe?

["Judith Oppenheimer" <joppenheimer@icbtollfree.com>]

Jamie, there are basically three types of .com registrations.

1.  Self-use (commercial or personal etc.)
2.  Warehoused, usually by big business, perhaps for future use but mostly
to keep the domains off the market and on the shelf, away from competitors.
3.  Speculation.  The only purpose of speculation is to return domain names
back to the market, albeit at a profit, but in most instances, at a very
nominal price.

So the value that is added, is the availability of speculation domain names,
versus unavailable-at-any-price warehoused domain names.

Have you visited any auction sites lately?  There are *so* many domain
names, good ones, available for as little as a few hundred bucks  ...

That might make some bristle - pay $35, sell for a couple hundred or more,
and we could discuss the economics of speculation in general, supply and
demand, etc. ...

But I'd rather help.  Email me some variations of what your colleagues are
looking for, and I'll see if I can't help you find them a few good options.

Judith

P.S. Re 3 digit .org's, my (U.S.-centric) experience in 800 vanities and
domain names says that people don't speak in abbreviations, they speak in
English.  Good variations include calls to action -- FindFreedomHere.com,
.net and .org are available.  Also, fyi, ConsumerProject.com, .net and .org.
are at the moment, available.  Also TechnologyProject.com, .net and .org.)

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-----Original Message-----
From: James Love [mailto:love@cptech.org]
Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 10:45 AM
To: Judith Oppenheimer
Cc: wg-b@dnso.org
Subject: RE: [wg-b] RE: opportunity to pre-empt, or license to infringe?


On Thu, 20 Apr 2000, Judith Oppenheimer wrote:
> I replied that cybersquatting involves infringement of trademark rights
and
> is actionable.*
>
> But speculation is legal and legitimate activity.  Trademark owners have
no
> legal right to infringe on speculators' activity.

   I work with a number of non-profit organizations that have never
registered a trademark, and can't get the domains that they would like
because the domains are held by speculators .  I personally would like
to see policies that limit speculation on domain names, which is not a
value added activity for society, in my opinion.

  Of course, this is made much worse by the artificial restriction on
the name space.  Apparently all 3 letter .com names are already gone.
I don't know where this stands for .org, but I can't get any of the 3
letter .org addresses I want (starting with cpt.org).

   Jamie

=============================================
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367        | http://www.cptech.org
Washington, DC 20036  | love@cptech.org
Voice 202/387-8030    | Fax 202/234-5176
=============================================