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How Many Domains Does Your School Own?
ADrexelStudent asks: "A debate has been brought up in recent months at my school, Drexel University, on the issue of whether the school should be allowed to own over 300 domain names. One domain, drexel.com, has been purchased from the students that owned the site, which was being used as a student forum. Another site, drexel.org, is under contest from the school against it's owner, a student. The university claims they didn't know the owner was a student and hence filed a lawsuit claiming trademark violation. Problem is the school doesn't own the trademark, a furniture company with no relation to Drexel does. Out of all the 300+ domains, only one outside the .edu TLD is being used, drexel.com, prompting the argument that this is an attempt by the university to silence student opinion on the Internet. My question for slashdot is how many schools out there purchase domains with no intent to use them, should student tuition be used in this manner, and what is your opinion of this practice?"
You gotta wonder what kind of critisism, opinions or similar they are afraid students will voice on the internet. Apparently the school is harboring secrets deep and dark enough to actually pay money from their budget, and use their employees time chasing this issue. Scary.
I'd have to admit though, that there Is a point to stopping anyone from using a domain that could be masked as the official page.
IANAL, but I doubt that the drexel furniture company owns a trademark on 'Drexel' as the name applies to education. The trademark only covers what they make it cover, i.e. furniture.
Keeping
300+ domains? So what kind of domains are we talking about here? We've seen samples of a few -- do you have the full list?
An EE prof told our class of grad students last fall that universities can't horde top-level domain names, but I called bullshite on that little factoid. Looks like Drexel proves that was a crock -- universities can do what they damn well please.
I've since dropped the program because they were clueless about what they wanted to teach, couldn't communicate amongst themselves or with students, and now I'm skeptical of anything I didn't pick up on my own during that experience. If ye olde prof is actually right about this one, someone please tell us all who regulates something trivial like this?
Even superheroes once were losers
If you want to see this stuff Done Right (imho) just browse on over to http://alteon.com/ to see what they've done.
Slashdot? Oh, I just read it for the articles.
I must admit that 2/300+ domains being [noticeably] used sounds a bit extravagant. I note however that in your post the case for at some domains is that the university simply buys them, rather than forcing the student owners to surrender them. In those cases at least it is the students making the decisions. However the underlying attitude of the university in garnering a useless monopoly does not seem to be a good one, and I think that it takes away from the dynamic essence of a university community that should be what all institutions strive for.
What's the best way to identify all domains owned by a given entity?
You should be lucky they even allow you to graduate. The last time I protested about the curriculum a certain administrative person pulled me into his office and threatened that "any teacher who didn't want me in his/her class could come to him and make it happen". I read that as, "we can prevent you from graduating if we don't like you".
Why sue a student, who has no money, when you could just threaten to take away his/her degree. I bet the person would cough it up real quick. It works for our shady University. Apparently "for the students" has different meaning in Wisconsin.
If you're not sure whether the University sensors student speech, read the school newspaper sometime. I hear people bitch about things they hate hear, yet I open the newspaper to see people regurgitating the same point of view as the school. Student run newspaper? To laugh!
In the real world the domain system is crowded, but is expanding and those expansions are happening, slowly granted, but they are happening.
A better question would be how much IP space are they hoarding for use with those 300+ Domains. For example I believe MIT have a class A to them selves, no problem there in itself, we should have as much space as required, but IP's are a far more limited resource than names, and there just isn't the room to keep expanding in the current conditions. I doubt Drexel has anywhere like that number. IPv6 is not coming as fast as it should be and that should be more of a concern to us than names.
Let them have as many domains as they like so-long as they aren't stolen from the students, (or anyone else for that matter), with a LEGITIMATE use for them.
"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
The local university over here received complaints because someone was hosting a porn site under a domain name which was confusingly similar to the official one. In such cases, the easiest approach is to acquire the domain name, shutting down the porn site itself is much too complicated. Similar problems occur if some student organization or political party holds critical (i.e. very similar or officially looking) domain names. I can imagine quite a number of domain names pileing up in the course of time.
However, the problem is less drastic over here in Germany because most university DNS entries usually have a UNI- prefix in the second to last component. Anyone registring such a domain who does not represent a university should know that he is heading for trouble, and it is rather unlikely that random collisions occur.
Would the Cyber-squatter bills apply to something like this.
The whole point corporations used to rationalize making such squatting illegal was that people were buying domain names without any intent of using them.
That being the case, can somone sue Drexel U. for squatting on domains that they have no intention of utilizing?
I've wondered the same thing about corporations that buy the 'x-company-sucks' domains - It seems a case could be made that if they buy a domain that says they suck, and they have no intention of putting up a website that explains *why* they suck, they are guilty of violating the cybersquatting laws.
No IANAL required her - heck, I am not even competent to have an opinion on lawyers IANECTHAOOL -
Just a friendly reminder: The number of domains is not limited by any factors except ICANN's greed and thirst for scarcity. Head over to OpenNIC if you'd like to go back to democracy.
A school, whether it is a Kindergarten or University is a place for learning and solely learning. If 300 domains do not benefit the learning procedure of those who attend the University, or directly benifit the school itself in the proper manner, it should not be funded.
or at least, that's not all of the story... if you followed what was happening, you'll know that they bullied the students who owned drexel.com out of the domain name, by threatening litigation.
one of the students who owned the name was mysteriously kicked out ! and so they finally settled, and sold the domain name, barely enough to pay their lawyer.
i knew the kids who owned the domain name, and there is more to this story, that they couldn't tell me.
it seems that drexel got angry when students who were displeased with the school and it's administration, discussed their dissatisfaction on the forum. i guess if someone types in drexel.com, they don't want you seeing anything about drexel's bad side. oh well.
i'm a student at drexel now, and finishing up my sentence there. i'd reccommend against anybody who is looking for colleges to even consider this place. they're just bastards, really. go somewhere else.
I partly agree. If they want to buy a bunch of drexel*.* domains they can do it. But if they were doing it to silence people's opinions on the university I would really have to question whether it would be a fit educational facility for my son.
how many schools out there purchase domains with no intent to use them Why does it matter how many others do it? What bearing does it have on your school?
See above.
And finally, should student tuition be used in this manner? How presumptuous to think you have any say in how your tuition is spent. You don't wonder aloud what McDonald's does with your cash after you buy a Happy Meal, do you? And if you don't like it, you don't give them the money.
I am not part of the McDonald's community for 4+ years. McDonald's will not solicit me for funds to build a new facility on campus. I do not go to Micky D's and get several thousand of dollars in debt to better myself and work towards a future.
I have the right, as a parent paying my child's tuition or as a student, to question where every cent goes. If the University is blowing $1000s to horde a bunch of frivolous domain names and that money could be spent on something even remotely useful I have a right to call foul on that decision. Being part of that experience is a good thing and will help a student when they leave for the "real world." You are seriously underselling a college education if all you think it means is paying some money and attending some classes.
I guess the real question is "Why do people post tempest-in-a-teapot stories to Slashdot?"
No. The real question is why do people who don't give a rip about the article waste their supposedly precious time and whine about the content.
I don't want knowledge. I want certainty. - Law, David Bowie