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Culturally, the internet is very much an American thing though. Any computer network controlled by almost any other culture would probably be extremely boring.
by UweSchmidt 6y ago
Culturally, the internet is very much an American thing though. Any computer network controlled by almost any other culture would probably be extremely boring.
The idea of registering a domain and "owning" it at the exclusion of everyone else is still wild to me and clearly a parallel to staking claims of land by American settlers. The boldness of collecting and presenting information in an unique way on a website, communities and forums emerging organically, are also processes that draw inspiration from a real or idealized past of starting from scratch with no authority around. The tolerance of occasional security breaches and (initially) rejection of centralization and censorship have been labeled the "Wild West" before.
A German internet surely would have come with red tape and a mere playground area for private citizens, and credentialed entities taking over content creation. Communist ideology would have made the thing centrally controlled, and judging how tightly controlled copying machines and telephones were in Eastern Germany as a means of communication nothing of cultural value would have come out of a communist internet in my opinion.
- talideon 6y agoYou don't "own" a domain: you have a recurring lease on it.
- macspoofing 6y agoA domain is a type of intellectual property. For all intents and purposes you own it.
- vntok 6y agoNot necessarily. For it to be a type of intellectual property it would have to be unique, distinctive, etc., which many domain names aren't. You can't really bring a claim to a domain name outside of trying to prove trademark infringement.
- talideon 6y agoIt's not, unless you have a trademark, and even then only within narrow domains in which you've registered the trademark. You don't own domains any more than anything else you lease. In fact, if you read your registration agreement, you'll find out just how _little_ you own it.
- quesera 6y agoTrue, but this is also precisely the description of land ownership on the US, as GP alludes. Call it "real property tax", or call it "domain registration fees" -- if you don't pay up, the item is taken away.
- talideon 6y agoNo, I think you'll find that if you read your registration agreement, that is not the case. I spent about a decade of my life as running the management systems of a domain registrar, with all the fun of dealing with ICANN, the various gTLD and ccTLD registry operators, other registrar, and so on. One of the recurring issues that got registrants into trouble repeatedly was the fact that they didn't understand that they didn't actually own the domain and that the terms of the agreement/contract actually mattered. It's not just a matter of not paying. You're dealing with a recurring payment for something with a private entity covered by a contract. That is a lease.
- quesera 6y agoCall it a "lease", or call it a "deed". If you do not pay recurring fees to the relevant administrative body, your operating privileges for the asset are taken away. "Ownership" may be expected to confer more privileges than a lease, but that's just a matter of traditional terms. I don't see any meaningful difference.
- talideon 6y agoWell, tell that to your landlord, &c. I'm sure they'd have a different point of view.
- quesera 6y agoI "own" a few real properties, some of which I lease to tenants under fairly traditional terms for real property. I have the option of changing those terms to give my tenants effectively all ownership privileges except responsibility for some official correspondence with the city, e.g. property taxes. If I fail to pay quarterly property taxes, the city will have a different opinion about who "owns" the property. They will divest me of all ownership and operating privileges, and I will not be free to offer them to others. My feelings on the matter are irrelevant, because they have guns and prisons. I "own" several domain names. In fact, I also lease one domain name to a lessor under fairly traditional terms for domain names. I have given the lessor basically full operating rights to the domain, except responsibility for official interactions with the registrar. If I fail to pay annual domain registration fees, the registrar/foodchain will have a different opinion about who "owns" the domain name. They will divest ... etc, see above. My feelings on the matter are irrelevant, since they have control of the administration of the .com TLD. Your point, I think, is that you do not "own" a domain name. Because registrar agreements, ICANN oversight, court decisions, obligatory lease payments, etc. I agree. But you seem to misunderstand how real estate property "ownership" works (in the US). It's not meaningfully different. I might even have more ownership privileges over domain names (I can serve autoplaying videos with loud audio all day long) than I have privileges over my real property (I cannot play loud music without being financially and legally censured).