4 ms·
So instead the US is the only country that "owns" domain names, since ICANN is an American company? If the domains aren't property then how can they be seized?
by tokenizerrr 12y ago
So instead the US is the only country that "owns" domain names, since ICANN is an American company? If the domains aren't property then how can they be seized? Is a distinction made between domain names and ccTLDs?
edit: Downvotes? Really? For asking a question that seems perfectly on-topic.
- neohaven 12y agoThe TLDs are not property, they are assigned by virtue of a physical space, like a postal code or an address. Domains are property, are bought by virtue of wanting a specific name, and can be sold.
- tokenizerrr 12y agoSo what about, for example, .co.uk? The ccTLD is .uk, but almost everyone uses the .co.uk subdomain, which itself is a regular domain.
- lmm 12y agoThe UK registrar decides how subdomains of .uk are allocated. They might well declare that .co.uk is an administrative division like .uk, but mycompany.co.uk is property that can be bought and sold. I don't see any particular issue with this, and it would match how they're used in practice (modulo some weirdness like police.uk).
- mattzito 12y agoICANN is not "American" necessarily, other than it's incorporated in America. Transition of ICANN from the US government to a fully private organization happened years ago.
- tokenizerrr 12y agoThey are American much in the same way that Google and Facebook are American, are they not?
- mattzito 12y agoExcept that they're explicitly international - they have boards with international representation, they move their meetings around to different countries to try to be equal, and in general don't specifically advance a US-specific agenda. Years ago, ICANN was funded/an arm of the US Department of Commerce, and then it could justifiably be accused of having an American perspective. The CCTLD operators got annoyed that the US was running things, and eventually the US DoC spun off ICANN into its own independent entity, and ICANN self-funded through what are basically taxes on registrations.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> So instead the US is the only country that "owns" domain names, since ICANN is an American company? If you read the article instead of responding to the title, you would recognize that ICANN is saying no one "owns" ccTLDs, because they aren't property at all.
- tokenizerrr 12y agoI have, and yes, they say that, but since they are an American company and thus can be compelled to do pretty much anything by the American goverment (through secret courts even, which we've been hearing more and more about) it seems reasonable to say that America owns them, and their bookkeeping.
- dragonwriter 12y agoTheir argument here is for why they cannot be compelled to do certain things by American courts.
- sp332 12y agoICANN has historically acted remarkably independent from the rest of the US Government. And legally: Icann and the US Department of Commerce announced that they had signed a new agreement that states the internet body is "independent and not controlled by any one entity". It also commits Icann to remaining a private, not-for-profit organisation. http://www.zdnet.com/icann-gains-independence-from-the-us-3039780163/ http://www.zdnet.com/icann-gains-independence-from-the-us-30...