Re: the cybersquatting bill (was: Don't Split the List etc.)

["Lizzie Borden" <lizbor@hotmail.com>]

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From: Me Uh, K. <pram512@yahoo.com>
>
> does anyone know - in order to register a .org domain
> - do you REALLY need to be a non-profit, in the
> technical, IRS sense of the word?  (as I remember it,
> there's a _LOT_ of paperwork to be filled out)

In the beginning one had to claim (or maybe even prove) non-profit status to
get an .org domain, but not anymore. I got an .org domain for my personal
website, through InterNIC, without any questions asked. And there was no
"paperwork" persay, just a form online to fill out which takes all of ten
minutes.

Someone else asked about how the cybersquatting bill affects the
registration of domains by those other than in the U.S. I think one of the
reasons EFF is opposed to the bill is because the bill will allow "trademark
holders in the U.S. ...  after a simple hearing, [to] be able to take away
domain names from domain name holders in other countries (holding them
financially liable, as well), without actual notice being given to the
domain name holders. Courts may award damages of as much as $100,000 per
domain name registration, even in the absence of any lost profits or actual
harm."
 http://www.eff.org/pub/GII_NII/DNS_control/19991025_hr3028_alert.html ).

Also, "H.R. 3028 gives trademark holders more rights than they currently
have under trademark law. For example, domain name holders could be liable
for "tarnishing" or "disparaging" a trademark. The concepts of tarnishment
and disparagement are unique to the small number of trademarks that qualify
as "famous marks". Yet H.R. 3028 expands these concepts to all trademarks.
Another example: a domain name holder who has not actually set up a site
using a registered domain name may be liable to a trademark holder if he
offers to sell the domain name to the trademark holder, even if the offer is
made in order to avoid costly litigation." (same source.)

Clearly the bill is giving more power to trademark holders than they already
have with existing guidelines concerning the registration of domain names.
Is it fair that someone in another country who doesn't even know who George
Bush Jr. is, to have something that sounds like gbush.com taken away simply
because it is a well-known name in the U.S.? I don't think so.

Liz


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