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Conflict resolution?

>From the IAHC charter: (*'s are mine)

"The DNS is an *international* resource and the *IAHC will at all times
operate with that perspective*. The IAHC                             
specification effort will address *legal*, administrative, technical and
operational concerns, with particular attention to the questions of
*fairness* and functional stability."

Based on the above I sincerely hope that the IAHC will tackle the issue of
conflict resolution WRT to unfair use of domain name registration. I
appreciate that this is a difficult and hot topic, but I feel very strongly
that if the Internet is to be considered truly *global*, it needs to be
resolved.

The present conflict resolution criteria sound great but have no teeth. All
they do is protect the registration authority from legal action, but don't
really resolve anything.

A real live example:

There is an organisation in New York which has registered (hi-jacked) 
dozens of domain names (with the .com extension) pertaining to company
names, registered trademarks etc. in South Africa and Japan. 

With sanctions having been lifted a lot of companies here in South Africa
would like to create an international "feel" by using the .com extension
rather than the localised .co.za one but now can not do so.

We are advised by various lawyers here that according to the present
conflict resolution guidelines, the only way to tackle the issue is to take
this organisation to court in *New York*.

I am sure you all appreciate that this is virtually impossible for 99.9
percent of companies outside the USA.

Again, if the Internet is to be(come) a truly global phenomenon, then it
needs to solve these problems in globally acceptable manner and not be
based on the current legal flavor of the USA.

(If  I have misunderstood the present conflict resolution policy and there
is an easy way to get the domain names back, pease let me know. I and many
others here in South Africa would be very grateful :-) )

Gert
______________________________________________
Gert Blij  (gert@itst.co.za)   ITST (Pty) Ltd
22 Sluysken Road, Hout Bay, 7800, South Africa
+27/(0)21/ work & fax: 790 2724    h: 790 3342
http://www.aztec.co.za/itst