Re: [ga] Privacy and Whois databases

[Joop Teernstra <terastra@terabytz.co.nz>]

At 08:27 AM 19/10/1999 +0200, Per Koelle wrote:
>
>
>Hi everybody.
>
>Please....
>Dont use the word "owner" of a domain !

Well, we do :-)
You must also have problems with the word Domain itself, then.
Personally I think it was a very well chosen word. Was it Jon Postel's
creation?
The word "Domain" has a very strong connotation of Ownership.
Your own private space on the Net.

>The fact is, that you dont "own" anything, but the right to
>use a certain domain.

That depends on the policy of the registry.   There is nothing that stops a
registry from declaring that Domains, once paid for, are held for life and
subject to the laws of inheritance.
Of course, in normal parlance, even a right to lease can be "owned".

As a matter of fact, the latest jurisprudence on this is that Domain Names
are property, that can be forcibly sold to satisfy creditors.

>IF you were "owner" of a domain, then nobody could take it
>away, just because you didnt pay some fee to the registry.
>You could at the most be "sat on hold", BUT NOT removed.
>I think, that the word "holder" is a much more precice word.
>
The choice of words signifies where one stands in a still fluid political
situation.
You may be right that "holder' more precisely describes the current
situation, but words are also used as vehicles for change.


--Joop Teernstra LL.M.--  , bootstrap  of
the Cyberspace Association,
the constituency for Individual Domain Name Owners
http://www.democracy.org.nz/idno/