Ellen Rony wrote:
>
> John B. Reynolds wrote:
> >
> >I agree with Michael Sondow. Membership criteria will be a lot
> clearer if
> >we base it on the identity of the domain registrant rather than
> the content
> >of the Web site (if any).
>
> Maybe I'm brain dead today, but how does that work?
>
> For example, our county Office of Education is not considered a
> "commercial" enterprise. However, it owns some rural land used
> for outdoor
> public secondary school education during the week, but available for rent
> as a retreat for businesses on the weekend. This is a very small corner of
> its activities, but the weekend business gives it a commercial spin. So
> what constituency fits that registrant?
Typically, entities whose primary purpose is non-commercial do not suddenly
become commercial just by engaging in limited commercial activities for
fund-raising purposes. Otherwise, every club that ever held a bake sale
would be classified as a commercial enterprise.
Whether governmental entities should qualify for the NCDNC (I am presuming
that the Office of Education is a unit of county government) is another
question entirely, one which I would be inclined to answer in the negative.
>
> If a commercial business also wants a separate URL for its community
> donation efforts (I'm thinking now of the Autodesk Foundation, a unit
> within the software company's structure), is that commercial?
>
It would depend on whether or not the foundation is separately incorporated.
> If a registrant who runs a business decides to set up a parody site (I'm
> thinking of PETA.ORG), is that commercial or non? If the site is making a
> statement by linking to other commercial entities (in the case of
> PETA.ORG,
> to furriers and the Bear-Paw Cookbook) is it then commercial?
If it's registered to the business, it's commercial. If it's registered to
the individual, it's not. The content of the site and especially who it
links to are irrelevant. My personal site links to my employer and to four
different companies whose names include "Reynolds". I don't think anyone
would argue that it is a commercial site on that basis.
>
> Here's another one. My brother is a professor at VPI. He has registered
> several domain names. One for the AAUP (American Association of
> University
> Professionals) to help that organization come online; one called
> sharebook.com, a concept similar to shareware; one for the family site at
> rony.com, and a fourth at domainhandbook.com. So knowing the domain
> registrant really doesn't clarify what constituency(ies) are appropriate.
>
Again, for the purposes of the NCDNC, Web site content should be irrelevant.
Your brother is an individual domain holder, therefore he's eligible. If
microsoft.com were held personally by Bill Gates, he would be eligible on
that basis.
> Do organizations using the Internet to solicit fee-paid memberships count
> as commercial? Do commercial enterprises using the Internet to display
> expertise in an area of human activity, without any mention of product or
> service, count as commercial?
No to the first, yes to the second.
>
> If Chris "Pokey" Van Allen decides to collect his experience with his
> domain name dispute into a booklet, available through the site for $3.00
> postage, must he change his constituency from non to commercial?
>
No.
>
> And you certainly cannot tell anything by the .COM, NET and ORG suffix. In
> the past year, many registrants have grabbed all three expressly
> to throw a
> safety net over a desired name.
>
I haven't argued that one could.
>
>
> Ellen Rony Co-author
> The Domain Name Handbook http://www.domainhandbook.com
> ======================== // =============================
> ISBN 0879305150 *=" ____ / +1 (415) 435-5010
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] \ ) Tiburon, CA
> On the Internet, // \\ no one knows you're a dog.
>
>
