[olug] OT: is a "domain name" property or service ?

[Will Langford]

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 11:04 PM, Sam Tetherow <tetherow at shwisp.net> wrote:

> You own the vehicle when you buy it.  The finance company files a lien
> against that vehicle which states that you have used your property (the
> vehicle) as collateral for the loan and they rights to that property
> should you default on the loan.
>

Makes sense.  So how does this apply to a lease, though ?  With a lease, you
do gain the title ?


> As far as the domain ownership I am pretty sure if anyone owns the
> domain other than yourself it would be ICANN.  If Verisign actually
> owned the domain I doubt they would let you transfer it to another
> registrar.
>

Reading the GoDaddy agreement, it looked very much like a service agreement
and similar... and that they had the right to stop service (or possibly
seize ?) a name that was being used for 'evil'.  Unfortunately, I'm unsure
if this means you'll be unable to transfer said domain to a registrar that
was more friendly towards your actions or not.  I imagine there's ICANN
documentation about procedures to do similar.

The veiled agreement they allude to towards ICANN is also of curiosity.  My
general feel for the agreement is that you would be leasing the reserved /
exclusive name-space from the third party registrar from ICANN.

The case law stating that the domain name is an intangible property is
interesting in this respect.  Without reading the judge's statement, I'll
assume there's a likening to trademarks and similar where you have
documentation/contract/agreement showing you own an exclusive phrase/term
through a third party that is authoritative.