4 ms·

If you sign up for an address on a platform you don't control, whether a service subdomain or a username, there's always a possibility that the platform owner w

If you sign up for an address on a platform you don't control, whether a service subdomain or a username, there's always a possibility that the platform owner will give it to someone else. Especially as their terms and conditions will always say they can, just to protect themselves in these situations. Fortunately, there are these newfangled things called domain names, which have an actual concept of ownership with real contracts and everything. These can go a long way to solving the sudden revocation of 'ownership' problem. I wonder why they haven't taken off?

mseebach 17y ago
It's not so simple, although I agree it's simpler. There was a case in Denmark, where a private person had registered orango.dk in 1999 (IIRC) because that was his IRC-handle. He didn't have an active website on it, but used it for mail. In 2009-ish, a design-agency was established as orango.nu and claimed the .dk domain from the registrar, and was awarded it because it "would be put to better use". Only after a veritable storm of unpleasantness from the community and threat of a lawsuit (the outcome of which wasn't clear, since private property isn't well established in the domain name space - it's all private contract law, and the contract basically allowed them to do what they did), orango.nu gave up the domain and passed it back. No procedures, rulesets or legislation is going to be revised over this incident. Obviously the system needs to be able to deal with (actual!) trademark infringing squatting, phishing etc. effectively, so making everything a case of private property isn't viable, but admitting error would definitely make me trust the .dk registrar a lot more. Finally, even if you use your own domain for e.g. tumblr, their TOS still allows them to kick you out for no reason. A domain allows you to take your content elsewhere, but follows/followers etc. are lost.
- bensummers 17y ago
  At least you can resort to the court for domains, and that threat goes a little way towards preserving the stability of the system. You sign away thise rights if you're using an internet namespace controlled by anyone else.
  - mseebach 17y ago
    My point is that domains are an internet namespace controlled by someone else. When buying a .dk domain, you apparently enter into a contract agreeing that they can do this to you (not that I've read the contract any of the 60-70 times I've purchased a .dk domain)...

mseebach 17y ago

It's not so simple, although I agree it's simpler. There was a case in Denmark, where a private person had registered orango.dk in 1999 (IIRC) because that was his IRC-handle. He didn't have an active website on it, but used it for mail. In 2009-ish, a design-agency was established as orango.nu and claimed the .dk domain from the registrar, and was awarded it because it "would be put to better use". Only after a veritable storm of unpleasantness from the community and threat of a lawsuit (the outcome of which wasn't clear, since private property isn't well established in the domain name space - it's all private contract law, and the contract basically allowed them to do what they did), orango.nu gave up the domain and passed it back. No procedures, rulesets or legislation is going to be revised over this incident. Obviously the system needs to be able to deal with (actual!) trademark infringing squatting, phishing etc. effectively, so making everything a case of private property isn't viable, but admitting error would definitely make me trust the .dk registrar a lot more. Finally, even if you use your own domain for e.g. tumblr, their TOS still allows them to kick you out for no reason. A domain allows you to take your content elsewhere, but follows/followers etc. are lost.

bensummers 17y ago
At least you can resort to the court for domains, and that threat goes a little way towards preserving the stability of the system. You sign away thise rights if you're using an internet namespace controlled by anyone else.
- mseebach 17y ago
  My point is that domains are an internet namespace controlled by someone else. When buying a .dk domain, you apparently enter into a contract agreeing that they can do this to you (not that I've read the contract any of the 60-70 times I've purchased a .dk domain)...