A Website By Any Other Name... Mark WellerRecently there has been some discussion about how Internet domains should be handled. A domain is the part of an email address or website name that indicates its location. The most famous examples tend to end with ".COM" such as "apple.com" or "intel.com." While ".COM" is a naming convention nominally reserved for commercial entities based in the US, there are many other domain standards, including one for each country in the world (e.g., ".CA" for Canada), as well as one for educational institutions (".EDU"), and US government sites (".GOV").
Controversy has arisen as to who should control the assignment of Internet domains, how they should be paid for, and whether a domain name itself is a form of intellectual property. As the on-line community expands, these controversies are growing.
As electronic commerce develops, and businesses expand their presence on the World Wide Web, one of the most important decisions a firm can make is with regard to its web address. Registering a domain name is one of the best ways to establish a presence on the net. A snappy Internet name, such as "yahoo.com," or "slate.com," which is easy to remember and easy to find, is a crucial marketing tool.
The registration of these domain addresses is what enables your desktop computer's browser to go out and find sites on the net. Without the naming convention roadmap, a site is much harder to find or connect to. To register a domain name with the convention ".COM", one must file an application with the Internet Network Information Center or InterNIC. InterNIC is a registration service that works like a clearinghouse for domains. About two to six weeks after filing, if the name clears, one is notified that the application has been accepted and the chosen name is added to the thousands already registered. This process of clearing the name is simply a comparison. If no one has registered the name already, then you may have it. The assignment process is scarcely more sophisticated than assigning personalized license plates.
Since there are no rules as to who owns a domain name before it is registered, the first to make the request is the first to be granted the name. For example, some time ago one long distance carrier in the United States attempted to register a domain with its competitor's name. Why would they do this? To rob their competitor of a chance to market their product with an easily recognizable domain. In Canada recently, West Edmonton Mall went to court to sue an individual who had registered the domain "westedmontonmall.com," arguing that the name itself was trademarked and was their intellectual property.
Although some have argued that the "first come, first serve" policy is entrepreneurial in nature, it is difficult to see why a domain name should be treated any differently than any use of a trademark.
Although some have argued that the "first come, first serve" policy is entrepreneurial in nature, it is difficult to see why a domain name should be treated any differently than any use of a trademark. A basic rule of law needs to exist on the net in order for business to be conducted efficiently, and the recognition of intellectual property rights, such as trademarks, is part of that.
Another proposal to deal with these matters has been for more domain conventions to be added, so that there is room for more than one website with the same name but different conventions, say, for example, mcdonalds.com and mcdonalds.usa. This proposal misses the central problem of the erosion of trademark, however, and would quickly degenerate into the same situation that has now emerged.
(McDonald's, by the way, is a particularly interesting case since the word is both a trademark and a public domain word, since it is the last name of quite a number of people. A court case filed in 1994 involving a gentleman named Ronald McDonald who registered this domain is still unresolved.)
Although there is an emerging realization that domain registry services need to be more diligent in respecting trademarks, there is no consensus as to who should control them. Throughout the world, government agencies, non-profit societies, and universities handle domains. With the demand for greater client servicing emerging, however, it seems that running a domain registry as a private, for-profit enterprise would be a good idea. InterNIC itself is moving in this direction with the introduction of a $50 (US) fee for domain registration, although the organization continues to be a kind of hybrid, jointly run by AT&T and the US government's National Science Foundation. In one part of their announcement last September, InterNIC made a particularly encouraging statement: "it is appropriate that Internet users, instead of the US federal government, pay the costs of domain name registration services."
As with many computer-related subjects, these changes have produced a strong response from users. "Don't Touch My Net" is a website dedicated to protesting the fee changes announced by InterNIC. The site states that the introduction of fees will shift the Internet "from a free public expression medium to a corporate controlled medium." This view is widely held among net users, particularly older ones who have benefited the most from free domain registration. This, however, is an outmoded view. To finance the development of the Internet and to improve efficiency, it is vital that a pricing system be introduced, and the domain level is the next logical step.
The final area that needs to be addressed is the question of standards. Although it makes a certain amount of sense for there to be a central clearinghouse for domains, the establishment of monopolies for this purpose is probably not the best way to go. In the 1990s, the Internet elements that have expanded most quickly are those that have benefited from competition between standards. Although there may be some simplicity to having standardized naming conventions, competition in telecommunications often brings about de facto or "industry" standards, which are determined by the response of the marketplace. Although this is probably the last area that will be addressed with regard to domains, it is worth considering the potential benefits of competing domain registration bodies.
The domain controversy is a natural result of the maturing of the Internet. The best way to resolve disputes in this regard, however, is not to impose a solution through the rules governing domain registrations. It is, rather, to give users the ability to defend their own intellectual property rights by applying the provisions of trademark law to the Internet.
Click here to return to the Articles Index.
Click here to get to TheWellers.com home page.
end