At 08:05 PM 3/29/99 -0500, you wrote:
>>Date: Mon, 29 Mar 1999 19:46:15 -0500
>>From: "Harold Feld" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>Subject: Goods or Services?
>>Mime-Version: 1.0
>>
>>Mikki, please forward.
>>
>>O.K., let me toss out a different suggestion.
>>
>>A registry provides a service. It therefore has the right to set the
>>terms of this service.
Terms as to what? The cost? Fine. An agreement to maintain? Fine.
Bills due on the 10th? Fine. Anything relating to the ownership,
license, peripheral rights, trademarks, service marks, etc., etc.
Forget it. It's standard law, with no registry making up rules of its
own.
The service provided is that it creates and
>>maintains an entry in a table that states that a particular domain name
>>resolves to a particular IP address. It also allows any server to point
>>to this table and pull the relevant uinformation, so that the server knows
>>how to resolve the name.
So they'd better do it right, and throw in WHOIS, etc.
>>
>>This avoids the property question. I have a right to continued service
>>provided I meet the conditions of service, so that the registry cannot
>>arbitrarily take my space in the table and give it to someone else.
Right.
>>
>>So who "owns" a domain name? No one. It doesn't exist, except as an
>>entry in a table. Alternatively, I "own" a domain name, but it is pretty
>>useless unless a service provider agrees (i.e., a registry) agrees to list
>>it.
>>
Unless, as I note elsewhere, the domain name is owned by the holder
thereof on a separate basis, i.e., it functions as a trademark or service
mark earned elsewhere in commerce under the usual rules.
>>This avoids all of the logical inconsistencies that have had people
>>chasing their tails trying to define the level of property interest. A
>>domain name is not something tangible, and can never be resolved into
>>something tangible. It is not even a right to do something at a
>>particular time (like an FCC license) or permission to do something (like
>>an FCC certificate as a common carrier). Heck, it isn't even the content
>>of your web page. You still have that, even if your domain name is
>>delisted. just that nobody else can find it.
All true.
>>
>> Rather, a domain name is a service,
Not so. A domain name is a "handle" on behalf of the owner (or at least
the registrant) of which the register provides the service.
like my contract with my local phone
>>company, that allows everyone to find me at my "POTS address" (i.e., my
>>phone number).
>>
>>the logical implication of this is that the rights of the parties should
>>be established by the service agreement.
In accordance with the law otherwise established. These contracts do not
make private law, but must be in accord with public law.
In a world where the registry is
>>a monopoly (e.g., NSI) or a carefully regulated guild (e.g., CORE, ICANN),
>>this screws the consumer, who has no bargaining power. In an openly
>>competitive world, the consumer is served by its ability to select among
>>competing registries.
Or at least competing registrars. While I realize that the entrepreneurial
blood wants everybody and his maiden aunt to become a registry, for
heaven only knows what gimmickry, I don't see any need for more than
one "entry ledger" -- registry -- and let the competition flourish at the
registrar level.
>>
>>Harold Feld
>>
>
Bill Lovell
