Best of the ISP-Lists

Anarchy Now!

Members of the ISP-Marketing list discuss what happens when trademarks and private domain names overlap. Can you register aol.com? How about worldnetone.com or madonna.co.uk? Why register at all?

[January 3, 2001]

On the ISP-Marketing list in December, CP inquired,

"I chose my business and domain name, World Net One, with no knowledge there was another service with a similar name. Do you think AT&T World Net will have a problem with it?"

A number of respondents sounded the clarion call for domain name freedom:

[CF contended] "I think the confiscation of domain names is overdone. Someone needs to take this matter to court. One person or company named Madonna or Ford can't have the only rights to 500 names all over the world. A trademark has registration and use requirements, and geographic boundaries. The domain dispute process doesn't make allowance for those and many other matters. Trademarks aren't worldwide, but domain registration is."

[SO agreed] "It is unconstitutional to allow an Internet domain name board to decide who has the rights to what names. If this were an issue regarding any other form of media, there would be no questions asked-the issue would need to go to a court of law. The Internet is global, but for the most part both parties in these intellectual property rights disputes are US citizens and US-based businesses. Such cases should be dealt with under US law."

[NS griped] "Most domain holders were forced to accept the arbitrary rules that NSI invented. We didn't have a say in it. Our choice was that we either agree to their terms, or don't use the Internet. That's not the way America works. Therefore, I strongly believe that any court would throw out any claims that aren't at least supported by some other law. I don't support cyber-squatting, and I do feel that certain companies should have rights to certain names, but to just arbitrarily turn over names without at least a judge presiding over it would be against everything this country stands for."

JDF warned that there doesn't seem to be much of a chance of changing things:

"Until somebody actually takes this matter to court, the status quo says that AT&T will very likely take your World Net One domain away as soon as their lawyers discover it's there. I know it's morally and ethically wrong, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Here's a few organizations that are examining these issues: the Domain Name Rights Coalition and ICANN Watch."

KN countered with a more radical proposal:

"The policies relating to trademarks are already mentioned in the domain registration. It is 'due process' if the procedure and policy is clearly defined. And the US has no control at all over non-US ISPs. Such stuff would never see the courts—there is no such thing as a Federal Government of the World. On the other hand, you forget that NSI is dependent on the Internet, which was never designed to depend on one point of failure. It is always the choice of the ISPs to regularly FTP NSI's IP addresses into their DNS server. So why complain about your own bad decisions?

ISPs could make their own servers and maintain their own registries. Charge a dollar per year for new registrations; make a few million a year. For example, *.isp would be a great thing to start with; charges of a dollar per year could easily cover the costs of running the root servers. No more NSI gun to your head. The freedom you always wanted."

—End