[governance] Good faith at ISOC & comment on IGF

[Mueller, Milton L]

Responses in line:

From: governance-request at lists.riseup.net <governance-request at lists.riseup.net> On Behalf Of parminder


We must understand that unique names and addresses on the Internet are basically a common or public good... Its value is not created by anyone to be able to profit from it, it belongs to all, the logic of which is self evident.

MM: Domain names are not public goods. This claim is based on ignorance of economic theory and of domain names. A public good is nonrival in consumption and nonexclusive. Domain names are neither. When one entity or individual registers a domain, others can’t use it. Ergo, a domain name is NOT non rival in consumption it is a private property. Also, if I am the registrant or owner of a domain, I can exclude others from using it. Hence, domain names are not nonexclusive. Those facts, to quote someone, are self-evident. Whatever your opinion of the .ORG sale, the notion of public goods is utterly irrelevant.

For this reason, core gTLDs, esp as carrying denominations that are essential to definition of some social entities, like .org, or .edu, .health, etc, should also be common or public goods.

MM: So, do I get to use itforchange.net? If it’s a public good you can’t exclude me from it. Shall I throw up my own web site on that domain? And accuse you of being an evil neoliberal for excluding me from it?

These should ideally be managed as non -profit -- on no-profit no-loss basis. But, in these neo-liberal times when even non profits are advised to work on market principles, even if for efficiency sake we are to take the services of a for-profit to run this commons/ public service it should be so arranged that the profits, or service fees, are quite modest.

MM: .ORG has been making a $40-50 million profit every year. The sale per se doesn’t change that. What we should be concerned about is whether the new owners, lacking any connection to the internet or nonprofit communities, will try to “milk” the domain and fail to maintain its reputation.

Let’s stop spouting anti-market rhetoric, which does no one any good in this context, and keep our eyes on the prize: we need modifications in the registry agreement, as described here:

https://www.internetgovernance.org/2019/11/25/what-to-do-about-org/

Dr. Milton L Mueller
School of Public Policy
Georgia Institute of Technology
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