Daily Domainer

The market is already crazy for domains and good domains are increasingly scarce but at this time, what domain buyers get is actually a service contract, which means that it's currently not possible to actually "own" a domain in the traditional sense. It's more like a subscription where you pay for usage rights.

What do you think would happen if certain countries were to declare domains as property? Well that was part of a discussion on domain names at the March 2007 ICANN meetings in Portugal. Here's a summary of what expert Momentus.ca CEO Rob Hall had to say:

…my opinion is a domain name is a service contract. It is not property… it's an asset, absolutely. And as an asset, I believe a company or an individual can own it and it can be transferred, transferred by will, transferred when you die. So, yes, it is absolutely an asset that you have, but it is not true property in the terms of property rights and property taxes…"

Despite Hall's stout opinion that domains are contracts rather than property, he did field questions speculating on what would happen if a country declared domains as property:

It'll bring up the jurisdictional question immediately of what jurisdiction is the domain name in…I think if a domain name was seen to be property, you'd have all different governments have different property rights, some are more liberal than others.

As for Hall's take on the potential downside of domains being deemed property by a particular country:

…certainly that would change the ability of a domain name to be awarded via a service contract with registrars. We may have to change the way we think about domain names, whether they can ever expire or not. Maybe they cannot expire, maybe registries aren't allowed to charge every year, maybe it's yours until you decide to sell it. It certainly would change the entire industry as we know it if a domain name was property.

Hall was split on his thoughts about what registrants would do if a particular country declared domain names as property. He proposed that registrants would either flood to that country to register domains or they would seek out countries where domains were not considered property to register domains. As for how registrants would fare in the domain marketplace if domains were proclaimed property by a nation, Hall believes that move would actually help domainers to have more protective rights for their domains than what's currently available.

Is this an opportunity for the Panamas, Hong Kongs and Vanuatus of the world - to declare domains as (tax-free) property in the hope of attracting a massive influx of domain owning entities?

What do our readers think? Would you set up shop in a country that considered domains as property? Would you shun such countries and prefer jurisdictions that favor the current service contract approach? Or wouldn't it make any difference to you at all?