Re: [ICANN-EU] The real challenge for all of us as candidates

[Marc Schneiders <marc@venster.nl>]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2000, Vittorio Bertola wrote:

> On Tue, 22 Aug 2000 16:21:35 +0200 (MEST), you wrote:
> 
> >And what do you propose to end the present situation where some arbitrator
> >appointed by the party that wants a domain can steal it from those who are
> >the rightful owner, but are smaller businesses or ordinary people?
> >See barcelona.com: "the city has a more legitamate right than a
> >company". This is against the rules of the UDRP but it happens. You let it
> >happen.
> 
> I mostly agree with you, but there is a point: it is impossible to define
> who is the "legitimate" owner of a domain, so the first-come first-served
> principle could seem the only way to go, and nevertheless there are some
> clear cases in which this principle goes against that very weak people you
> want to defend. I.e., here in Italy, as soon as the limit of one domain per
> entity was abolished, a company registered some thousands of the most common
> family names. They are not allowed to sell them, since .it domains cannot be
> (officially) traded (and I think this is great), but nevertheless many
> individuals here cannot get their family name as a domain.

Yes, that looks bad. However, I am sure that in Italy as elsewhere there
are many families with the same name. So it will be impossible for all to
have their name in the .it TLD. First come is really the only way. And if
a rich family wants to buy the name from their namesakes, who could use
the money e.g. to start a business (or have a luxury holiday,
whatever): what is wrong with that?

> This is why I think that it is important to have different TLDs with
> different policies. I find good that in geographic domains (not in .com) the
> names of places are reserved to the public administration of the place
> itself. On the other hand, I can't see why that same name in a commercial
> TLD should not be kept by a private.

Agreed. On a global level it is impossible to decide which of the places
with the same name (there seem to be more Barcelona's, there are a lot of
places in the US named after a European one) should have the .com. 

By the way, it seems barcelona.es is still free. And if I understand what
http://www.nic.es/normas/index.html (sub 3.3 b)  has for rules, it is
forbidden ... 

--
Marc Schneiders ------- Venster - http://www.venster.nl 
 marc@venster.nl - marc@bijt.net - marc@schneiders.org