On Thu, Feb 04, 1999 at 06:41:36PM -0800, Greg Skinner wrote:
> Kent Crispin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >You might see it that way. Another characterization might be that TM
> >interests have noted that under current social reality domain names
> >have value as advertisment, and also that the DNS, in conjunction
> >with the web, functions partly as an advertising medium. And
> >therefore, use of names in that advertising medium does in fact come
> >under the purview of TM law. This is all fact. Trademarks do
> >appear on the net; trademarks do appear in domain names.
>
> *sigh*
>
> Here's where I feel the fundamental flaw is made. The DNS was not
> designed to function, even partly, as an advertising medium,
> particularly as an index or directory of commercial vendors.
Many things end up being used for things they weren't designed for.
That's life. The facts are as I stated them -- the DNS does
intersect the TM space. We can't wish that genie back in the bottle.
There are a number of people who are seriously lost in dreams about
the way things were, or the way things might have been. But
trademark interests are a permanent part of the DNS landscape, now,
and we all might as well get used to it.
> Do not
> read this as me saying that the DNS should not be used to map the
> names of commercial network names to network resources, particularly
> IP addresses. That is not my intent. But the DNS was not designed to
> do the type of many-to-many mapping of easily recognized name to
> online presence that seems to be needed.
DNS wasn't designed to be a means of expressing protected free
speech, either. That view is at least as much a contortion of the
orginal design as is the view of domain names as TM-like
intellectual property, or as cyber real estate to be siezed in a mad
landrush...none of these views were imagined in the original design.
> DNS needs to do what it does best, as a critical part of the Internet
> infrastructure. IMO, we should be trying to work out compromises
> between disputing domain name interests
Seems to me that is precisely what is being done...
--
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair "Do good, and you'll be
[EMAIL PROTECTED] lonesome." -- Mark Twain
