4 ms·
A domain name is a private good, not a public good.
by oftenwrong 8y ago
A domain name is a private good, not a public good.
- idle_zealot 8y agoCan you clarify what you mean by that? Would you say that ICANN "owns" all domain names, then sells them in bundles, making them private goods?
- hexane360 8y agoIt's an excludible good in the economic sense, but the value wasn't created by the private company, but by the public WWW itself. This is classic rent seeking.
- eugeniub 8y agoA domain isn't a private good until it's actually owned by a private party.
- tlholaday 8y agoThe exclusivity of the domain name is a public good. The right to use the domain name is a private, transferable good. Were the auction site operated by Romania, the value of courses.ro would be determined by auction, paid by a willing buyer, and received by the Romanian polity. Instead, the Romanian polity receives 300EUR as an entrance fee to a race-track where luck is significant in determining the winner. There is nothing in the linked article suggesting that the number of entrants is limited.
- jjoonathan 8y agoSure, just like the public's promise to keep off a chunk of land is a private good. That's how our current system works, but it probably works that way primarily because the groups in charge wanted to raise money, not because it's a fundamental philosophical truth that it should work that way.
- onetimemanytime 8y ago"A domain name is a private good, not a public good.... until it is sold (or rented) to person x, with the understanding that he can renew it forever if he follows a few rules.
- C1sc0cat 8y agoCountry ones are owned by the country - TLD's are a bit more unclear.