<nettime> eToy(s); Manila

["cisler" <cisler@pobox.com>]

Manila a very interesting new piece of software from Dave Winer.
Dan Gillmor, technology columnis for the San Jose Mercury News uses it for
his weblog site.  Here's the recent column on the etoy mess, as well as
NSI's blocking of email to the Swiss site

http://weblog.mercurycenter.com/ejournal/

More on eToy(s) and Domain Names

I took a shot at eToys the other day for its unfair treatment of a site
called eToy. eToys, an online toy store, hasn't been around nearly as long
as eToy, an artist hangout, but that didn't stop the retailer from suing to
block the artists from using their domain name.

My advice remains: Don't shop at eToys until it does the right thing, which
is to back off its outrageous behavior.

Meanwhile, Network Solutions Inc., the domain-name monopolist that makes
Microsoft seem gentle and kind by comparison, has blocked e-mail (Wired
News story) to the eToy folks. Whether NSI had the right to do this is
questionable, but hey, being a monopoly means never having to say you're
sorry.

The domain name system is broken. It's a disaster area that Congress and
the White House recently made worse with a new, "anti-cybersquatting" law
that gives big businesses all the power they need to run roughshod over
smaller entities in the domain-name space.

After I posted my first eToys piece here, I heard from two of the most
thoughtful observers of the Net -- and of technology in general -- Dan
Bricklin and Bob Frankston. Their credentials? Well, they wrote VisiCalc,
the first electronic spreadsheet, back in the late 1970s. That software,
more than any other product, legitimized personal computers.




                         "The real problem," Bob wrote, "is
                         not whether trademarks get
                         screwed up. It's utterly clueless
                         people getting involved in the glue
                         that holds the net and, now, our
                         economy, together. That's the real
                         danger! I'm less upset at eToys. The
                         problem is those who have made
                         .COM the gating factor in the
                         universe! In fact, we should say that
                         in 2006 all .COM addresses will be
                         decommissioned and legacy URLs will
                         have to be converted to a
                         meaningless name. (Yes, I know that
                         isn't feasible). People can already
                         use directories that reflect the
                         complex realities of finding "Joe's
                         Pizza" and not be so focused on the
                         convenience of BigCo's establishing
                         brand names and funding legacy
                         television advertising."

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