Bingo! We have a winner.
Registering a domain and servicing said domain are separate issues. The
first is purchasing the rights to control a piece of the relevant name
space, the second is a purchase of an ongoing service that incurs recurring
costs. There can even be different organizations selling and servicing, one
a registration authority and the other a service provider.
There is precedent for this, that is the way the root has been handled. The
only difference is that the transfer of rights to the namespace was done
without exchanging money.
How are the rights to a portion of a namespace valued? Well, its based on
utility. I can sell you rights in the .doofus domain, but I doubt that you
would pay very much for them, as the utility is pretty low. This is not
true, however, of the legacy namespace, as the universal use of the space
means that it has a high utility, and considerable value. The shenanigans
that people go through to lay claim to a piece of that space are an
illustration of that utility, and of the perceived value.
David Schutt
-----Original Message-----
From: Owner-Domain-Policy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of James Santagata
Sent: Friday, March 05, 1999 8:16 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Privacy of Domain Registration Information
<snip>
1) Anyone should be able own a DN (not for free, but by purchasing it)
2) Putting the asset into service, should not be a requisite of ownership,
but an option available to the owner.
<snip>
Once the DN is purchased, it should be designated by the registry as
reserved. The fee that you pay to the registry handles these costs.
If the DN owner later decides to have it serviced, they then pay the
recurring fee to enable this service, as required by the registry.
<snip>
