Hi Bob,
I don't think anyone would dispute that MontBlanc has the right to
profit from having the monopoly over MontBlanc pens, nor would anyone
complain
about Cross profiting over Cross pens. It is clear that in both cases,
both
companies have created a product, and therefore they have the right to
profit
from their creation.
In the case of TLDs, I find it very hard to imagine that Chris Ambler
has 'created' ".web", or that Jay fenello has 'created' ".per". I find
it
extremely hard to acknowledge the creation of words in the english
dictionary
(sky, earth, sex, auto...) by private individuals. As far as I'm
concerned,
just as words in the dictionary are not available for private resale,
things
such as ".com", ".web", ".net" ".whatever-you-want" shouldn't be
available
either, UNLESS (and here's the big caveat) everyone has the right to
have his
own combination, which more or less takes us into the realms of what
".com"
is today (nearing 2 million registrations). But it seems that most agree
that
this is NOT a good way to go (ie, the free for all opening up like
crazy),
and in any case, if it WERE allowed, then there would be no case for
anyone
wanting to register an SLD (why should I want ".outremer.com" instead of
just
".outremer"), *however* we WOULD need a shared registry for the root,
but I'm
sure we'd have some bright spark claiming it was HIS (hmm, maybe NSI,
after
saying that A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET is theirs...)...
In the absence of letting EVERYONE have their TLD, I find it only fair
to
allow NOONE have their TLD.
Yours, John Broomfield.