> The requirement for you to be a legal entity has been there for a while > now, I fell foul of it when I wanted to set up a client account under > Kiwimail with the legal entity being Valkyrie Systems Ltd, it would have > been easier for me but ah well...
To a lawyer there are a few fundamental things here like: 1. property (including the right to a domain name) must be owned by a legal entity. 2. a trading name is not a legal entity, basically the only two legal entities are individuals or companies [1]. company names end in "limited". companies have directors who have authority to deal with the company's property. 3. joint ventures and partnerships are not separate legal entites, but are a collection of indivduals or companies or both. 4. domain names are valuable property and domainz have a duty to get it right. You may be annoyed at them prevaricating over changing a domain's details, but you'd be really pissed if someone rang up and said they were valkyrie systems and that the domain was to be linked up to some Mexican porn site. By attaching the word "Limited" you tell domainz that there is a company there, with directors, and that gives you quite a measure of protection. Similarly kiwimail is a vague term, the business operated by kiwimail must be owned by some legal entity, it should be registered to that legal entity. Having said that, it is not an area I would expect every non-lawyer to necessarily need to come to grips with. [1] actually there are more, like incorporated societies, incorporated trust boards under the charitable trusts act, the crown, the public trust, bodies corporate created by royal chater (ever heard of the hudsonbay company?), but they aren't that common. -- Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
