Confederation of European Computer User Associations

Confédération Européenne des Associations d'Utilisateurs des Technologies de I'Information
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NEWS FLASH

Is Your Personal Name a Commodity in Cyberspace

 

CECUA Euro News Flash

Is your personal name a commodity in cyberspace?

All Citizens of the Information society should have the right to a personal-name Internet address in cyberspace. The European Union should position the new .EU domain as the citizens' domain and give every citizen the right to a personal-name Internet address. There is no better way to build Trust and Confidence than to get the Citizens on to the net. Everybody benefits: Citizens, Governments, Industry and Commerce. This is really the Information Society for everybody the European Commission is calling for.

Would you like to have a name in cyberspace? Your own name? A name nobody can snatch away from you only to offer you to buy it back for a fee?

The prestigious .COM domain name, for example, is being used by some people who speculate with names. Registration takes place on a first come first serve basis. Some people have made a good business out of this by registering the personal names of prominent people only for the purpose to offer the names for sale at a later date. Names have become a commodity in cyberspace. Nobody has any rights to his or her own name. If we are lucky our personal name is still unallocated. Otherwise the only alternative for us is to buy it for a price. CECUA believes it should be the right of every citizen to have his or her name in cyberspace. Personal names should be reserved and waiting for being picked up by that person. However, it is for the individual to decide whether to make use of this right or not.

In the past there have been some cyberspace personal-name initiatives at the member state level, e.g. Finland and Germany. However, nothing concrete has come out of it. So why is CECUA bringing this up now? Because of two developments.

Firstly ICANN, the authority that governs the domain name system, has approved several new domain extensions. One of those extensions is .NAME for individuals. Here is an opportunity to give everybody a personal name in cyberspace, e.g. jon.thorhallsson@globe.name etc. However, there is one small problem. Again the new domain extensions will be a commodity in cyberspace and exploited for commercial purposes, in a similar way to .COM. First come first serve. Sorry, your name is already reserved. You can try to buy it back.

Secondly, the European Union is preparing the introduction of a new Top Level Domain, the .EU. Here is a unique opportunity to position the new domain .EU as the citizens' domain offering every citizen a personal name in the new .EU cyberspace. And CECUA urges the Commission to grab this unique opportunity. AND DO IT NOW. This is not a business issue, this is a political issue for politicians to deal with. There is no better way to bridge the digital divide and make the information society a society for everybody. Everybody sitting at the same table having a personal name in cyberspace able to communicate with each other using those personal names. And what better use for the .EU than exactly this. This is differentiation from instead of competition with .COM.

Would this not be great for e-commerce? Getting everybody on to the net. This will be nothing less than a repetition of the global GSM mobile phone success, a success based on European foresight, pioneering and leadership. This is exactly what Europe needs, a new "killer" application and it needs it now. The politicians have to pave the way and commerce will follow and we all reap the benefits. CECUA wants to start this discussion. Visit our web portal at www.cecua.org and send us an e-mail at jon.thorhallsson@cecua.org or stuart.goold@cecua.org