FYI, you removed the attribution of the statement you're replying to
here. That's generally considered rude in e-mail list circles.
On 03/25/2017 05:02 PM, Al Iverson wrote:
And to John's objection to privacy for companies in another
message, your outlook is unrealistic. It's often very important to
secure names in advance for a project that hasn't been publicly
announced (because once it's announced the speculators will swoop
in). Not being able to mask ownership information for these
domains, prior to the announcement, would be a serious business
risk, and serve to stifle innovation around domain names.
Not seeing it.
Because your vision is too narrow. :)
Company names in the US are public record with the state that
they're registered.
Want to trademark that business name in the US? That becomes part of
the public record, too.
You seem to be assuming that the only domains a company might want to
register refer to the name of their own company. That's not even close
to being accurate.
Companies register new domains for special projects, new ad campaigns,
etc. etc. There are all kinds of reasons companies register new domains,
and may want to temporarily hide the fact that their company is
associated with it, until that property or campaign becomes public
knowledge.
But let's take your example of a new business. In today's economy your
on-line identity is a critical part of your company. It would be
incredibly foolish for a new company to go very far down the road of
naming itself without being certain that the right domain names
associated with that name are under their control. So there is likely
not even a legal entity which already exists at the time of the
registration to effect the registration in the first place.
Companies often speculatively register domains, even speculatively
submit trademark applications today and most of them seem to do just
fine without having to eliminate or restrict WHOIS.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio ..."
Don't want it registered to the main company? Register it to one of
your other LLCs.
As you so cleverly pointed out, those records are public, too.
If you're a company registered in a US state, the company name,
registered agent, and incorporation info are public record. If you
are a company registering a domain name on the internet, I think
that registration information for that domain name should be at least
as public.
The fact that you think that is interesting, but not terribly relevant.
All you've stated is an opinion of what you think SHOULD happen. I've
pointed out numerous reasons why companies don't always want to do this
now, and won't do it in the future. If you want anyone to take your
argument seriously you have to show what harm will come from private
registration.
If you prevent registrars from offering private registration services
you'll simply pave the way for people to offer their own registration
agency services to hold the registrations on behalf of those who don't
want their information public. So you'll push the problem outside the
scope of ICANN oversight, and then you're done. You cannot prevent
people from contracting with each other to provide/consume these
services, and you cannot require people that do to submit to ICANN
oversight.
The answer is simple ... keep these services at the registrars, and
exercise reasonable restrictions on how they are provided. Those who
need privacy can have it, and those that need to contact the real
registrant can do so with a minimum of fuss.
Doug
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