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Date:      Fri, 31 Jan 2003 02:11:28 +0000 (GMT)
From:      William Palfreman <william@palfreman.com>
To:        Doug Barton <DougB@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        Fred Clift <fclift@verio.net>, "" <freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: 4.7-R-p3: j.root-servers.net 
Message-ID:  <20030131015918.J31399@aqua.lan.palfreman.com>
In-Reply-To: <20030130010126.Y341@12-234-22-23.pyvrag.nggov.pbz>
References:  <20030129163652.J22139-100000@vespa.dmz.orem.verio.net> <20030130022654.C31399@aqua.lan.palfreman.com> <20030130010126.Y341@12-234-22-23.pyvrag.nggov.pbz>

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On Thu, 30 Jan 2003, Doug Barton wrote:

> I'm re-posting your whole message (something I don't usually do) because
> you rather neatly made my point, and contradicted your first statement. It
> is ENTIRELY possible that the courts (not the name server admins) will
> have the final say in regards to domain name disputes, since they have the
> ability to compel obedience to their edicts.

Only in the case of a _unitary_ domain name system.  With different
roots and different TLDs, based in different legal jurisdictions, it is
not possible for a court to enforce arbitrary domain name decisions (as
it is at present) because if their whim of the moment is not acceptable
to the different competing nameserver admins, the is nothing the courts
can do.

The purpose of multiple competing roots and TLDs is precisely to get
away from the legalistic takeover of the Internet, which is founded on
their own ignorance and utter lack of technical understanding.

> Like it or not, domain names are part of business, and business and law
> are tightly intertwined.

No.  People think they are, but actually the are part of the DNS system,
a popular distributed database service to make IP addresses easier to
use.  There is only a current de-facto relationship with businesses,
courts, trademarks and so on, one which is impossible to force on people
without actually securing the agreement of those managing the different
zones in different places.

-- 
W. Palfreman.

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