International Domain Name Issues

Reader raises the international side of issues discussed by members of the ISP-Marketing list.

[Response to the Best of the ISP-Lists article Anarchy Now! from January 3, 2001.]

[January 8, 2001]

Dear Editors:

I was just reading your latest article on Domain Names and copyrights overlapping. I would like to respond to the person labelled "SO" who stated that "It is unconstitutional" to let the internet domain name board decide who has rights to what name.

I would like to point out to this person that domain names are international and not every person in the world falls under the US constitution. I believe that registered business names and their owners have the right to pursue ownership of a domain that is in their name.

This being said, I also believe that we need to look at who has registered their business first and if they are in direct competition with each other. For example, if McDonald's dry cleaning registered "mcdonalds.com" and Ronald and friends thought that the domain was theirs, too bad. They need to pay the price of not being fast enough to the marketing trigger... and pay the price they would.

We need to treat domain names as real estate. If you happen to buy that piece of property before me I lose... but if you put up a competing store using my name...I sue you, period.

I don't know if this made sense but....

Thanks,

FM
Toronto, ON, Canada.