Re: Good Monopolies

[Vince Wolodkin <wolodkin@digitalink.com>]

I don't have to eat fast food, but if I want to do business on the
internet, I do have to have a domain name.

I also think you don't understand what a monopoly is.  You are talking
about a trademark, not a monopoly.  I cannot do business as Wendy's, but
I can sure as hell sell a hamburger.  

The difference between the namespace and almost any analogy you might
think up is that in the namespace, nothing is created.  Their is
absolutely work attached with flinging a dot onto a common english word
or commonly used acronym.  You might be able to trademark a name, but
you certainly cannot patent it.  I doubt seriously that you could
trademark .USA.  Mr. Palmer DO YOU HAVE A TRADEMARK ON .USA, or are you
just blowing more smoke.

Like I have said before, I liken the idea of owning a TLD to the idea of
owning an area code.  I sell phone service to people and give them a
number in my own personal area code that I make up.  No-one can call
them unless they use my service.  Do I have the right to get pissed off
when the FCC won't add my area code and make all phone companies route
calls to my switches?

Vince Wolodkin


Leo Smith wrote:
> 
> >From Vince Wolodkin, in reply to John Palmer:
> Well, they (the registry) can still charge $50 per domain name, or
> whatever, they can
> still make money, they just don't hold monopoly control.  Those of us
> paying attention have seen NSI's monopoly, and don't like it.  Why
> should multiple monopolies be any better?
> 
> To which Leo Smith contributes in reply:
> The monopoly problems stemming from NSI seem to have developed a strong
> bias in some contributors against any concept that uses words like monopoly
> or exclusive.
> The best way to illustrate the answer to Vince's question: "Why should
> multiple monopolies be any better?" is to use real life examples of
> multiple monopolies that compete with each other, much in the same way we
> envision competition among Core members. Suppose that you live in a market
> area capable of supporting 5 Fast Food restaurants.
> The SHARED MODEL: in one theoretical example of a shared model, 5 Fast Food
> restaurants (substitute registries) would be assigned by a selection
> process to 5 qualified operators. Imagine further that those in authority
> with the power to assign the restaurants(substitute IAHC) to the operators
> also had the authority to select what they believed to be the types of Fast
> Food operations(substitute gTLDs) that would best serve the fast food
> demand of community members(substitute Internet Users). After proper
> deliberation, the deciding body determines that the five fast food
> operations (gTLDs) that are approved include WENDY's, MacDONALD'S, KFC,
> BURGER KING and SUBWAY. Suppose further that the Fast Food authority was
> extremely concerned about fostering competition and avoiding monopolies, so
> they came up with the following solution: EACH RESTAURANT (registry) WOULD
> SHARE THE 5 COMBINED MENUs.
> 
> The notion that to foster competition it is required that all registries
> SHARE the same gTLDs is just as fallacious as the idea that all 5
> restaurants would need to offer all menu items found in each of the 5
> approved fast food operations in order to ensure competition among
> themselves.
> 
> In the real world, the five restaurants own an exclusive franchise stemming
> from an agreement with the franchisor. The WENDY's owner has a MONOPOLY on
> WENDY's(the gTLD) within the geographic area defined in his franchise
> agreement. Yet even with that monopoly, he still faces stiff competition
> from other restaurants serving different fast food menu items.
> 
> Suppose that .law, .atty, .legal, and .divorce could each be a gTLD. If
> IAHC grants an EXCLUSIVE license to MY registry for ONLY .law, and grants
> another exclusive license to YOUR registry for .legal, and grants another
> exclusive license to JOE'S registry for .atty, then those Internet users
> interested in a law related gTLD will find as much competition among the
> three registries as we find among WENDY's MacDONALD's and BURGER KING.
> 
> This is an example of multiple monopolies competing for marketshare the
> same marketplace. If it works well in fostering competition among the fast
> food monopolies, what rationale underlies the fear that it somehow won't
> work with registries and gTLDs?
> 
> Leo Smith Capital Ventures Group, LLC
> 860 668 4000