Internet Name Freedom / No Name Police

["John D. Goodspeed" <John@Annapolis.Net>]

Registrars must not become the de facto Internet Name police, judge and
jury.

Registrars must allow any and all names to be registered without regard to
possible infringement or political correctness.

To have the registrar take on the responsibility of deciding what names are
proper would be ridiculous. Why should they become the self appointed
Internet Police? What special wisdom would they posses?

There are already legal mechanisms available to trademark and copyright
holders. There is no need for the registrar to be treated any differently
than a newsstand, neither can or should be held responsible for their
content, to do so would violate the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

A newsstand is not liable for the fact that a particular magazine, book or
newspaper may contain a copyright or trademark infringement and neither
should an Internet Name registrar. The Internet Name Registrar is simply a
directory listing of names and addresses, much like a classified ad in a
newspaper, nothing more.

In the real world if you have a grievance with a violator of your trademark
or copyright you must take it up with the actual violator, not the
intermediate messengers and directories that lead you to find the possible
violator.

Just because an Internet Domain Name is the same as a commercial name does
not in itself make for a violation. It is the actual content of a site that
determines if a violation is taking place. A trademark has to be specific in
its area of coverage, you cannot simply trademark a name and forbid its
future use for any purpose whatsoever under the sun.

A registrar must not be asked to prognosticate on how a given name could be
used by its owner in the future. Therefore, it shall be up to the trademark
holder, through legal due process, to prove in a court of law whether or not
the actual existing web site represents a violation of trademark or
copyright.

If the court determines that indeed a violation does exist, than the court
must issue an order for the current Internet Name holder (not the registrar)
to stand down and relinquish use of the Internet Name for the actual purpose
in question. Very seldom would a decision be made that the actual name
itself must be returned.

Thank you for your consideration, I welcome your comments,

John D. Goodspeed