[NA-Discuss] The societal harm of domaining, episode 413

David Mackey mackey361 at gmail.com
Sat Feb 13 19:44:12 UTC 2021


Hi Volker,

I'm starting to conclude that metaphors are useful when explaining
technology to non-technology people, but metaphors only go so far when
trying to understand how ICANN policy for Domain Names affects end users.

A domain name is not a house. It is not a ticket to an event. It is not a
trademark. It is not a copyright.

A domain name is simply a technical identifier used to facilitate
human interaction on the internet ... and it is controlled by ICANN policy.

Nat raises a legal question about interpretation ... a property right or a
contract right?

Evan raises an economic question about "rent seeking".

I wonder if it might be better to identify and discuss the different
factors of domain name policy which affect end users, rather than getting
overly caught into a discussion about metaphors.

e.g. Legal, Economic, Operational, User Experience (DNS Abuse), ??, ??, ??

Cheers!
David (I am not a cat)

On Sat, Feb 13, 2021 at 12:25 PM Volker Greimann <vgreimann at key-systems.net>
wrote:

> In that case, domaining can also be likened to the practice of buying land
> or houses for resale or renting out to third parties, to buying art for the
> purpose of resale, buying or amassing copyrights and trademarks or even to
> buying stocks.
>
> Are we really prepared to say any form of investing, renting, leasing or
> using property for your own personal gain are a societal evil?
>
> --
> Volker A. Greimann
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 13, 2021 at 4:42 PM John More via NA-Discuss <
> na-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org> wrote:
>
>> +1
>>
>> On Feb 11, 2021, at 11:59 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi David,
>>
>> I didn't see your original email, but I did see the response and your
>> followup.
>>
>> There are significant differences between ticket scalping and domaining,
>> mainly arising from the finite number of seats and hard expiry dates that
>> make unused event tickets worthless once the event is over. However IMO the
>> two share a fundamental characteristic broadly known in economics as "rent
>> seeking": wealth obtained through manipulative use of resources without any
>> associated increase in productivity.
>>
>> Being in a queue early to buy a ticket/domain (without intent to use it)
>> inflates the price without adding any value. I am fascinated by speculators
>> who claim what they're doing is innovation, and even more by those who
>> peddle themselves as branding experts to try to give some veneer of added
>> value. Nobody is fooled by this. Nor does anyone shed any tears when the
>> primary sellers (ie, Ticketmaster/Godaddy) see the greed and then seek to
>> compete with them. The losers are the end-users in both cases.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
>> @evanleibovitch / @el56
>> ------
>> NA-Discuss mailing list
>> NA-Discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss
>>
>> Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org
>> ------
>> _______________________________________________
>> By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your
>> personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance
>> with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and
>> the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You
>> can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or
>> configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or
>> disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
>>
>>
>> ------
>> NA-Discuss mailing list
>> NA-Discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss
>>
>> Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org
>> ------
>> _______________________________________________
>> By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your
>> personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance
>> with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and
>> the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You
>> can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or
>> configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or
>> disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
>
> ------
> NA-Discuss mailing list
> NA-Discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss
>
> Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org
> ------
> _______________________________________________
> By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your
> personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance
> with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and
> the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can
> visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or
> configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or
> disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/na-discuss/attachments/20210213/4adc94e5/attachment-0001.html>


More information about the NA-Discuss mailing list