Dealing with domains

The stewardship of top-level domains has become the center of great concern to the vast Internet community, as the U.S. government gets ready to turn over its control to the private sector, including commercial interests, academia, and international players. No matter who gains the potentially lucrative control, they will inherit a host of domain name disputes involving the copyrights of large corporations pitted against the independent spirit that ruled the Web until recently.

Domain draft proposal released The Clinton administration posts its draft proposal outlining how the government should transfer the domain name system to the private sector. Domain players ready to compete The Commerce Department and would-be players prepare for the government's plan to transfer the stewardship of domains to the private sector. Oreos domain in dispute Nabisco threatens to sue a Canadian man who registered "oreos.com" for his home page with adult links. Scientologists in trademark disputes The Church of Scientology International is accusing two Web sites of trademark violation and is taking action to stop it.