Wendy and all my friends, Response interspersed below... Wendy Seltzer wrote:
Thanks Evan and Danny,
I think I'd narrow the question: Are parties with privileged access to domain name data using it to the detriment of users/consumers?
Good way to pose the question! Our answer has always been yes, and remains so. Why, one might than ask? Simply put, any "Special Privilege" to access that could possibly be construed or recognized as restraint of trade within legally defined are recognized parameters, is a detriment to users and/or other types of consumers.
Both registries and registrars have access to data that the ordinary person can't get -- registries through traffic to their zonefiles when a name is resolved through the DNS (or not resolved because it doesn't yet exist), registrars through the queries users make in the pre-registration process. We should be concerned if they use this information in an anticompetitive or anti-consumer manner, particularly in the case of registries, because there's no way the market can correct these errors. We can't just choose to use another .com zone.
Very good point!
If we can identify that connection between use of limited-access data or data the user reasonably expects to be kept confidential and resulting consumer or market harm, I'd support requesting a PDP.
Also agreed as long as said requested PDP is open to any and all interested parties and "Rough Consensus" is NOT a determinant aspect... BTW, in our members opinion this problem and/or question should also apply to ccTLD name spaces as well given international trade agreements, ect.
--Wendy
Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Hi Danny,
Does the ALAC intend to launch a policy-development process on whether and how to restrict GTLD registries or registrars or both from engaging in warehousing of and/or speculating in domain names?
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-20...
I am in complete agreement that the warehousing of domain names is an issue of public concern; however I am personally not sure how to adequately address this in a way that actually serves the public good. If a registrar isn't warehousing popular names (or near-misspellings or popular names, etc), then someone else is. From the public POV, I can't see how the "wild west" character of .COM (and possibly other TLDs) would be any better if all these domains were in the hands of a private squatter rather than a registrar.
Did the registrar have special access to search domains? Only to the point that it's cheaper for them to register, and they probably developed automated tools before private registrants did. In any case, Tucows has been around this field for a very long time; the size and "quality" of its stable of names owes more to its early involvement than the fact it's a registrar.
Would policies that force registrants out of the domain-warehousing business help? Not if the result is simply the sale/auction of domains to warehouses run by non-registrar squatters.
The bigger problem of public perception and confidence, at least from my view, is the treatment of domain names as chattel/commodity rather than identification. And simply regulating registry/registrant ownership of domains does not change that. I would argue, for instance, that domain names should be subject to the same "use it or lose it" regimen as trademarks, for much the same reasons. (IMO, parking does not constitute "use").
As a counter-example: When one registers a domain with CIRA (under .ca), there needs to be some kind of demonstrated link between the owner and the requested domain. I'm sure the process isn't perfect, but it demonstrates how, at the registry level, abuses can be minimized through core allocation policy.
Thus, the problem is at the registry level with .COM allowing -- indeed encouraging -- a free-for-all. Rather than retroactively trying to fix that, perhaps the answer is to encourage gTLD alternatives that will offer the public greater confidence. One would hope that with a more-open, more competitive approach to gTLDs the world's dependence on .com -- and especially its perception as the 'global default TLD' -- may diminish. That would IMO be the biggest blow to squatters and warehousers -- registrants and otherwise.
Having said this, I would welcome any process to produce policy initiatives that might (realistically) improve the status quo -- to advance to the GNSO or anywhere else. If ALAC isn't interested in your offer we can certainly accommodate you within NARALO and advance resulting policy initiatives within ALAC that way. At that point our challenge is finding people who care about the issue, have the time to be well grounded in it, and are articulate enough to advance policy change.
Evan Leibovitch Chair, NARALO
-- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org Visiting Professor, Northeastern University School of Law Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html http://www.chillingeffects.org/ https://www.torproject.org/
_______________________________________________ ALAC mailing list ALAC@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org
At-Large Official Site: http://www.alac.icann.org ALAC Independent: http://www.icannalac.org
Regards, Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 277k members/stakeholders strong!) "Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" - Abraham Lincoln "Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt "If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by P: i.e., whether B is less than PL." United States v. Carroll Towing (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947] =============================================================== Updated 1/26/04 CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security IDNS. div. of Information Network Eng. INEG. INC. ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402 E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com My Phone: 214-244-4827