Re: What if an URI also is a URL

> No matter what ICANN tells people, I think it's safe to say that domain
> names are, essentially, property.

So, we just forget about ICANN then?
 
> Can you suggest a plausible scenario where domain names in which there
> is a great deal of investment (amazon.com, google.com, ebay.com,
> ibm.com, microsoft.com, mozilla.org, w3.org, wikipedia.org, irs.gov,
> whitehouse.gov, house.gov, etc, etc) could be treated as significantly
> different from property?   Do you think somehow smaller domains should
> be governed by a different legal theory?

Well, no I don't. But then the current state of correctional terms in
California comes to mind. ;)

> <snip/>
> 
> It would be nice if ICANN would be more clear about this, but I don't
> particularly worry about it because I think if they attempted to act in
> a way which significantly contradicted this understanding, they would be
> overruled by more powerful segments of society.

That sounds ominous. "More powerful segments of society"? People or
organizations?

Tony



On 7/6/07 16:46, "Sandro Hawke" <sandro@w3.org> wrote:

> 
> "Hammond, Tony" <t.hammond@nature.com> writes:
>> 
>> "This document hereby declares, establishes and records the fact that the
>> URI http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes/PatHayes is owned by Pat Hayes and is
>> intended by Pat Hayes to rigidly denote himself, ..."
>> 
>> Yes, very nice. But is it strictly legal? ;)
> 
> No, but for different reasons than you suggest.
> 
> I'd say Pat's statements are problematic because they contradict
> relevant IETF and W3C specifications.  He is, essentially, acting like
> Emperor Norton [1], proclaiming things which are, in contrast to social
> consensus, simply not true.
> 
>> See this
>> 
>>     http://www.icann.org/faq/
>> 
>>     Q How long does a [DNS] registration last? Can it be renewed?
>> 
>>     A Each registrar has the flexibility to offer initial and renewal
>> registrations in one-year increments, provided that the maximum remaining
>> unexpired term shall not exceed ten years.
>> 
>> Maybe I'm missing something but I was not aware that DNS names were "owned".
>> Contrast also that maximum period of registration with the lifetime of the
>> Web.
> 
> No matter what ICANN tells people, I think it's safe to say that domain
> names are, essentially, property.
> 
> Can you suggest a plausible scenario where domain names in which there
> is a great deal of investment (amazon.com, google.com, ebay.com,
> ibm.com, microsoft.com, mozilla.org, w3.org, wikipedia.org, irs.gov,
> whitehouse.gov, house.gov, etc, etc) could be treated as significantly
> different from property?   Do you think somehow smaller domains should
> be governed by a different legal theory?
> 
> Of course, the laws concerning various types of property are incredibly
> complicated and vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.  But still, my
> point is that people have a general sense of what property is, and that
> applies to domain names.
> 
> (Note that people do get their property taken away from them, for all
> sorts of reasons, from time to time.  Sometimes they have their property
> stolen.  Sometimes someone uses the law in a way which seems offensive
> to common sensibility to take away someone else's property.  That
> doesn't change the fact that it was property.)
> 
> It would be nice if ICANN would be more clear about this, but I don't
> particularly worry about it because I think if they attempted to act in
> a way which significantly contradicted this understanding, they would be
> overruled by more powerful segments of society.
> 
>     -- Sandro
> 
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_A._Norton

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Received on Friday, 8 June 2007 08:54:30 UTC