AustLII Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback

Edited Legal Collections Data

You are here:  AustLII >> Databases >> Edited Legal Collections Data >> 2019 >> [2019] ELECD 578

Database Search | Name Search | Recent Articles | Noteup | LawCite | Help

"Property rights in generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)" [2019] ELECD 578; in Mahler, Tobias (ed), "Generic Top-Level Domains" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 112

Book Title: Generic Top-Level Domains

Editor(s): Mahler, Tobias

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Property rights in generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

Number of pages: 17

Abstract/Description:

Chapter 7 focusses on property rights in gTLDs. Does somebody own the DNS, or parts of it? It is argued that the ICANN corporation does not own the DNS; rather, it manages a common property regime. By comparison, registry operators of gTLDs arguably hold an individual property right. This conclusion may be controversial, as ownership rights are explicitly excluded by many ICANN documents and contracts. I make this claim because the registry operator of a gTLD enjoys a significant degree of protection of its interests in the gTLD, and this fulfils certain economic criteria for property rights. Thus, perhaps surprisingly, gTLD operators hold property rights in the economic sense, but not necessarily in the legal sense, as the legal notion can differ from between jurisdictions and even contexts. To avoid the conceptual challenges with the phrase ‘property right’, the chapter proposes a new term, ‘gTLD right’.


AustLII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback
URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ELECD/2019/578.html