Ownership of Names (was Re: Public identifiers and topic maps)

W. Eliot Kimber (david@megginson.com)
Mon, 28 Sep 1998 13:28:08 -0400 (EDT)

W. Eliot Kimber writes:

> So I maintain my assertion that names, not just name spaces, are
> ownable things. If this were not the case, Compaq would not have
> spent 3.something million dollars to buy the name
> "www.altavista.com". QED.

If you wanted to express the point formally, you could say that each
unique combination of

{ namespace, time }

or

{ namespace, time, name }

is ownable. Eliot owns drmacro.com at 00:00:01 GMT 28 September 1998
(and for a while before and after).

Vanity of vanities, dust to dust, and all that.

All the best,

David

-- 
David Megginson                 david@megginson.com
           http://www.megginson.com/