<nettime> [Random-bits] Sexton, Berryhill et all on ICANN and trademarks

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

     [orig to RANDOM-BITS <random-bits@venice.essential.org>]

This is an online petition to ICANN regarding the issue of trademark's
and domain names.  

http://sunrise.open-rsc.org/


In the sign-on letter to ICANN, be

http://sunrise.open-rsc.org/see_it/

This is from the letter:

     MichaelKirkIsaPedophile.com is libelous, and has legal consequences
as a string of text. 

     HaveSexWithMeForMoney.com is a criminal solicitation. 

     TheHolocaustIsaJewishLie.com is likewise a criminal utterance, but
in Germany, not the U.S. 

     MuhammadTheProphetAtePork.com is blasphemous and likely a capital
offense in several countries. 

     Yet, despite these and other categories of legally significant
alphanumeric character sequences, some even criminal in nature, nobody
is proposing a prior restraint on them. 

     Trademark infringement is only a subset of a much larger category
of legally-proscribable uses of alphanumeric characters.

     Why, among all forms of legally significant text strings, are
trademarks singled out for a heretofore unknown pre-emptive right?
Because ICANN, a technical body, has an "Intellectual Property
Constituency" with non-technical concerns. 


=======================================================
James Love, Director           | http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | mailto:love@cptech.org 
P.O. Box 19367                 | voice: 1.202.387.8030
Washington, DC 20036           | fax:   1.202.234.5176
=======================================================
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