Internet Domain Names: Property Rights and Institutional Innovation

Abstract

The emergence of a new international regime that is being organized around the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is traced; the regime has developed in response to the commercialization of the Internet and to the global debate over the management of domain names.The property rights conflicts that arose following the growth of domain names are considered and a property regime ("draft-postel") is proposed as an efficient response to commercialization of name space.The contrast between the proposed regime and the current regime reveals the degree to which conflicts intrinsic to the definition of property rights impede institutional change. (SAA)

Keywords: Domain names, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Property, Property rights, Internet, Commercialization, Organizational change