Ron Paul vs. RonPaul.com

[gotlucky]

Domain names are like phone numbers. You don’t own your phone number. The only property that is owned are the phones and the infrastructure that connects everything. You contract with a phone company to connect you to the network and provide you with phone service. Let’s say you contract with Verizon and they give you a number 1-800-555-1234. You don’t own that number. Verizon doesn’t own that number. It’s just a number that everyone uses in order to process phone calls so that they go to you when someone dials 1-800-555-1234. It wouldn’t do you much good if Verizon was a company that didn’t recognize the numbers that were given out by other companies. If AT&T, Sprint, etc., all used 1-800-555-1234 to refer to another phone, then that doesn’t do you much good.

ICANN is a phonebook. It doesn’t own your computer or the infrastructure that connects computers and servers throughout the world. You contact a registrar and they register a domain name for you with ICANN. No one else can register that domain name with ICANN. This doesn’t make your domain name your property any more than it makes your phone number your property. When you type “www.google.com” into your browser, your computer connects to your ISP’s DNS servers to lookup what computer to connect you to. Verizon doesn’t have to connect you to Google’s servers. It could connect you to “www.verizon.net” if it wanted. But that doesn’t do you much good. Verizon gets its DNS list from ICANN, so when you lookup “www.google.com” with your browser, you get Google’s website.

These guys registered “www.ronpaul.com” with ICANN. That does not make it their property. All it does is mean that whoever uses the ICANN list to translate “www.ronpaul.com” into an IP gets the particular website associated with the ICANN list. Ron Paul is contesting this with the rules of ICANN. It would be as if Ron Paul used the rules of Verizon to transfer 1-800-555-1234 from you to him. You don’t own that number. You don’t have to use Verizon.

Now I’m going to repost Clayton’s repost of Lew Rockwell’s points:

‘RonPaul’.com
Posted by Lew Rockwell on February 13, 2013 08:31 AM

There is so much disinformation on this issue that I will probably have to post more than once, but here are a few points:
–Ron is not using the State to acquire RonPaul.com. He could have brought a lawsuit in US government courts, but he did not. He is seeking to have ICANN enforce its own rules against cybersquatting, including the rule against registering a famous person’s name and making money off it. Anyone registering a URL agrees to keep all the rules, just as he must pay a recurring fee. A URL is not private property in the normal sense. It is a license, and ICANN is a private, non-profit organization.
–Ron is not calling on the UN. ICANN has four approved arbitration organizations. Because the RP.com guys registered Ron’s name in Australia, the international arbitration option must be used. Yes, it is associated with the UN. Too bad, but one must play the cards one is dealt. The UN itself is not involved, though note—whatever else is wrong with it—the UN is not a State.
–Why did Ron wait so long to bring this claim? He did not feel he could do so as a public official. Once he became a private citizen again, he was freed.
–This fight is not about so-called intellectual property, since it involves private agreements. But if it were, must one agree with Murray Rothbard–who discussed IP more than 50 years ago–to be a libertarian? I agree with Murray, but IP is hardly a make or break issue. Certainly Murray did not see it as such. In the same sense, one need not be an anarcho-capitalist to be a libertarian, though, like Murray, I am one. One can be a constitutionalist or otherwise believe in limited government. Oh, and need I note that Murray loved and admired Ron?
–Is Ron “attacking his own supporters” by his action? Apparently, the RP.com people have never given a dime to any of his campaigns nor educational efforts. Instead, they are attacking Ron. Some supporters. But it will not work. And it will soon be over, freeing Ron from this distraction as he steps up his fight for freedom. Really steps it up, in historic ways.