RE: [wg-review] 11. IDNH Centers of Interest

["Cindy Merry" <tomerrys@inter-linc.net>]

Thoughts on holding vs. owning a domain name.

It is true that you cannot own language.
It is true that you can trademark a word/name under specific rules.

Economically, many people would say that being able to own property leads
to prosperity and in most circumstances creates a form of democracy.  In
the foreseeable future access to the internet may define prosperity,
freedom of speech, and much, much more.

Monopolies, in many ways, can destroy forms of democracy by uniquely
controlling property.  And the independence and freedom of action of
individuals.

At present within the Internet community there are businesses that want to
'control' issuance of domain names.  By businesses controlling those names
they can, without proper controls, create a monopoly.

The suggestion made (by Domingo) that perhaps each person in the world be
given their own unique domain name would keep this monopoly from occurring.
If all individuals had their own domain name then the probability of their
use of the Internet being curtailed would be minimized to some extent.

Businesses could still buy and sell non-individual unique domain names for
commercial use, but the individual domain name might not be allowed to ever
be put up for sell or trade.

Thus the issue of ICANN and support organizations could focus on the
business communities interests and another unique council could be created
to protect the individual's use of the Internet.

Cindy Merry

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-wg-review@dnso.org [mailto:owner-wg-review@dnso.org]On Behalf
Of Bret Busby
Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 1:03 AM
To: Robin Miller
Cc: Jefsey Morfin; wg-review@dnso.org
Subject: Re: [wg-review] 11. IDNH Centers of Interest

Robin Miller wrote:
>
> Jefsey and everyone :)
>
> well, my opinion is pretty clear - a good example is that you cannot own
a
> trademark - you have to use it in order to keep it.
>
> Same with domain names. You cannot own the words, you have simply secured
a
> right to use that word for a particular purpose.  Hence why I support the
term
> holders over owners.
>
> I can own a company, own my artwork, etc. Those are tangible assets. But
I
> cannot own a word. I can only hold a word as a domain name or a
trademark.
> Words are common property that are used for many different purposes by
the
> public. Hence yes - I support Sotiris on the issue of attempting to own
> language.

In this, I disagree, on two points.

The first is this; a domain name is an asset. The pirates
register/buy/whatever a domain name, then, put it up for sale, at a
price far in excess of (hundreds of times of) its cost to them. For
example, if a domain name costs a pirate 17USD, which I understand to be
about the annual cost of registration, and, the pirate puts a selling
price of 3400USD (two hundred times its cost to the pirate), then, the
domain name is regarded as a commodity to be bought and sold, and, it is
owned by whoever owns the registration of the domain name.

The second is this; a domain name is owned as a unique identifier, which
can equally be traded, as a business name can be traded. For example,
lets say that you own a company named Miller Astral Transport Vehicles,
which produces a model of vehicle, known as the Enterprise. Then, one
day, you decide that you are getting too old, or too tired, or too
lacking in inspiration, to continue torun this large multi national
company that you built from scratch, and, you don't like your realtives
enough to give it to them, so, you sell it. In selling it, you sell the
company name Miller Astral Transport Vehicles, as part of the sale.
Miller Astral Transport Vehicles, is a name that uniquely identifies the
company. Now, lets say that you want to have a website, and, a domain
name, http://www.matv.com . You register the domain name, for your
company, and, as long as you pay the annual regsitration fees, you own
the domain name, and, may use it, via hosting, to publish a website,
that is uniquely identified, as relating to your company. You are at
liberty to sell the domain name, and, it would likely be regarded as an
asset, that is part of your company. You will note here, that I am not
going into the issue, of some nasty sod taking a trademark on your
company name, that you have not trademarked, and, trying to take your
company name and domain name away from you. Such issues are another
matter. The issue here, is purely whether a domain name should be
reagarded as something that is owned.

Thus, I contend that the term domain name owner, is the appropriate
term, and, more appropriate than domain name holder.

--

Bret Busby

Armadale, West Australia

......................................
"So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the
answer means."
 - Deep Thought, Chapter 28 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
 - Douglas Adams, 1988
......................................
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