Re: Proper use of domain names.

["Donald E. Eastlake 3rd" <dee3 at torque.pothole.com>]

Policies in .com, .net, and .org were originally set by IANA
(www.iana.org), and not the IETF.  Later, the US Government fixed the
price but in effect granted Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI), the power
to impose broad policies/terms/conditions over those names.  NSI's
written policy of favoring registered trademark holders over other
domain name hoders has been a matter of public record for years.  This
organization should have long ago registered their trademark if they
didn't want their domain name to constantly be at risk.  For years now
they have been signing annual renewal forms with NSI which state that
they accept the NSI disupute resolution policy.  I don't think there
is much they can do now, its way too late.

Donald

From:  srodawa <srodawa at oakland.edu>
Message-Id:  <199908032206.SAA23517 at jupiter.acs.oakland.edu>
To:  ietf at ietf.org
Date:  Tue, 3 Aug 1999 18:06:50 -0500 (EDT)
Cc:  srodawa at cliff.acs.oakland.edu (Ron Srodawa)

>My apologies if this is off the subject for the list, but...
>
>There is a non-profit organization which has had the domain name mi.org
>since 1988.  They are about to have the domain pulled from them because
>some commercial organization is claiming to hold MI as a trademark.
>
>On the surface, this seems wrong for several reasons:
>
>1. mi.org is not MI and by the intended meaning of "org" would seem to clearly
>   not be a trademark infringement on a for-profit organization.
>
>2. How can a commercial organization sieze a .org domain name?  Isn't .org
>   for non-commercial use?  They should be placed in .com, right?
>
>3. This organization has held the domain name for eleven years during which
>   there has been no problem.
>
>I'm becoming very troubled by the crass commercialism of the web when root
>domain names such as .org no longer are used for their intended purposes.
>
>As a small non-profit, this organization (basically an ISP for small
>non-profit organizations) has empty pockets.  Any advice?
>
>Ron Srodawa
>
>| Ronald J. Srodawa               | Internet: srodawa at oakland.edu |
>| School of Engineering and CS    | Voice:    (248) 370-2247      |
>| Oakland University              | FAX:      (248) 370-4625      |
>| Rochester, Michigan  48309-4478 |                               |
>