Return to tldapps Forum - Message Thread - FAQ

Username: keith246
Date/Time: Tue, October 17, 2000 at 11:48 PM GMT (Tue, October 17, 2000 at 5:48 PM CST)
Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer V5.5 using Windows 98
Score: 5
Subject: Governments can steal names in unrestricted domains

Message:
 

 
My understanding of this is based on news reports.

WWW.BARCELONA.COM was registered to a travel agency, and the travel agency had a meaningful web site.

The city of Barcelona Spain wanted the domain name for itself and took the matter to court.

The city of Bracelona Spain succeeded in getting the domain name.

The city of Barcelon should have been content with the .gov, or whatever, domain name part is resevered for government agencies in Spain.

But because .com is unrestricted, this government was able find a court that would take the commercial domain name away from the commercial company that owned it.

Similar things have happened with parody sites.  Adding .sux as part of the name is not seen as sufficient to prevent consumers from confusing the parody site with the real site.

ICANN needs to provide official parody gTLDs so that courts cannot stop freedom of speech.
     

 


Message Thread:


Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Cookies Policy