Abstract: The world has seen three waves of property. The
first hark back centuries and relate to real and personal property such
as land and chattel, also known as immovable and movable property. The
second gained recognition around the nineteenth century and relates to
propertization of the labours of the mind or intellectual property .
The third wave came within a much shorter period and starting to gain
recognition and it is what is known as virtual property.
The law and policy-makers have had to surmount not only a steep
learning curve but also in some cases a foundation that is wrought with
mistakes when it comes to the treatment that should be given to virtual
property. The Domain Name System (DNS) is the best example of a form of
virtual property that has given rise to challenges in law making and
administration. The land grab of domain names in the World Wide Web
(WWW) have given rise to a virtual tsunami of registrations and this
has led to the subsequent erection of levees in the form of a challenge
regime. This paper will identify and consider the problems that the DNS
is facing and suggest the changes that have to be made to it in order
for it to withstand the forces of what will be an increasingly rising
sea of domain names on the WWW.
This paper will begin with a look at
the fissures in the seabed of the DNS by comparing how the management
and policies relating to domain name registration and challenge have
shifted and diverged in different jurisdictions as well as by examining
the inadequacies of the original registration regime (ICANN) and
challenge policy (UDRP). After identifying the problem, suggestions
will be made to resolve them in the best possible way, which require a
revisit of the stakeholder and policy interests in the Internet and the
ownership and control of domain names that essentially function as an
important gateway to the WWW in order to rebalance these interests in
an attempt to achieve greatest equilibrium. Amendments will be proposed
to both the registration and challenge regimes as well as to the
structure and hierarchy of domain name administration which should be a
globally coordinated effort just as the DNS is a common entryway to the
global property that is the WWW.
To read this paper by Warren Chik, originally published in the
International Journal of Law and Information Technology, in full see:
ssrn.com/abstract=1358790