| Username: |
Dennis |
| Date/Time: |
Tue, July 4, 2000 at 6:08 PM GMT |
| Browser: |
Microsoft Internet Explorer V5.01 using Windows NT 5.0 |
| Score: |
5 |
| Subject: |
Questions 25-28: Welfare Program for the IP Industry |
Message: |
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Jon Postel's axiom was that domain names are not trademarks.
His premise reflected respect for the free speech rights of all individual Internet
users, and acknowledged that small businesses require equal access to the commercial
resources of the Net. Memento mori. The intellectual property community has resoundingly
triumphed at turning Net names into colonizable property that can be claimed in the
name of this or that corporate kingdom. At this point in the Net's history,
so many businesses have issued intimidating cease and desist letters to noncommercial
domain name holders -- including children -- in the ORG domain, that it is hard to
see this as anything but a blatant attempt to maximize existing colonial property
values. Forcible segregation of names by means of zoning mechanisms would (I hope)
provoke a popular uprising. If adopted, charters should be completely open
and voluntary. This proposal should go down in history as the Net's equivalent
of the USA's Fugitive Slave Act.
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Dennis Schaefer
Marblehead MA USA
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