On Wed, Feb 03, 1999 at 10:22:42AM -0400, Kerry Miller wrote:
[...]
>
> Its only the trademark interests which have proclaimed DN strings to be
> intellectual property, over and above its original use as a convenience
> to the commonality of net-users.
To the extent that domain names are property at all, they are a
species of intellectual property. They certainly aren't any form of
tangible property.
> Seriously, by any concept of 'intellectual property,' the cybersquatters
> are in *exactly* the same business as the TM holders: trying to
> capitalize on the alphabet.
That's simply stupid. The businesses of TM holders are myriad, from
running a restaurant to making soft drinks to building space
shuttles. The business of cybersquatters is trying to sell names
they got under false pretenses, and frequently don't pay for.
It costs several hundred dollars and takes a year or more to get a
trademark. People simply don't run around trademarking good names
and then trying to sell them. Instead, people get trademarks to
protect the identity of their real business. Protection of business
identity is the whole point.
--
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair "Do good, and you'll be
[EMAIL PROTECTED] lonesome." -- Mark Twain
