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Username: keith246
Date/Time: Tue, October 17, 2000 at 4:07 AM GMT (Mon, October 16, 2000 at 10:07 PM CST)
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Score: 5
Subject: Parody gTLDs must be restricted to be permitted by the courts

Message: 		 

 
The various applicants going for parody gTLDs as part of their application must restrict the granting of domain names in those gTLDs.

A domain name resembling a company name (or celebrity name) has to be given to that company if the company asks, and if the only difference is something like .sucks.com.  This has been upheld in recent court rulings.

The reason given is that consumers may be confused and may think that the .sucks.com domain is the real web site.

Dropping the .com off the end and having just .sucks or whatever, will not change the judges' views on consumer confusion.

The only way to ensure that consumers are not confused will be to restrict the legitimate owner of any associated name from owning or controlling a domain in the parody gTLD.

Granting parody gTLDs on a pure first-come-first-served basis will be a cash cow for the registrar, for a while, but in the end the concept will be stopped by the courts.

And that would be a real shame -- I think parody gTLDs would be the most valuable thing that comes out of this.

(I would like to see a registrar offer parody domain names on a three or six month non-renewable basis, so everyone who wishes has a chance to take pot-shots at the big companies and big stars.)

       
     
 

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