Internet addresses or domain names should be treated the same as names on any other medium like television, radio, magazines, etc. Furthermore, names on the Internet should be the same as names in the real world. Whoever registers or copyrights a name first, whether it is on TV, radio, magazines, a real life bricks-and-mortar store, etc., that same entity should have the right to the same name on the Internet and any other medium.

This principle should also apply to the names of every individual person on earth. If somebody wanted to create their own Internet address or home page, they should have the right to use their own names as written on their birth certificates or SS card. If an internet searcher types in a name (or a simplified version of a name, like John Smith instead of John Quincy Smith), the search results would bring up a list of every person on the planet who has the name John Smith. The internet searcher would then look over this list to see exactly which John Smith they were looking for. To provide some security and a little more privacy, the owner of each personal webpage could be allowed to give a key code only to those people that the owner permits to visit. In addition, the owner of this webpage should be entitled to receive a detailed list of everybody who has visited that page, how long they stayed, what they looked at, etc. And/or the owner of their webpage could allow access to virtually everybody, but then without notice prohibit access to specific people for whatever reason. Among the many different things a personal webpage may have, one could be a gift wish list. This way anybody who knows an individual’s name could check to see what they want for their birthday, Christmas, etc.

Buying & Locking Up Domain Names

It should be illegal to purchase web domains without any intention to develop the site, lock it so other competitors cannot use the name, or expressly for the purpose of selling it at a cost of more then 10 times what a not-in-demand domain name would cost.