Session Five Summary:
Recap

During this session, class members discussed the last few sessions, in particular the extent to which problems identified by different speakers could be addressed through changes in the architecture of the Net. Several students noted that many sources of Internet controversy—including trademark disputes and confusing, duplicative tax liability—might be eliminated if all domain names and email addresses included some indication of where their owners resided. Thus, Brown’s Grocery Store of Ohio might not fight with Brown’s Grocery Store of Alaska over a domain name, if for example brownsgrocery.oh.com and brownsgrocery.ak.com were both available names, and if consumers knew to include a geographic identifier when guessing at probable URLs. Furthermore, businesses trying to avoid the onerous taxes imposed by a state would have an easier time avoiding liability there because they would know when they were transacting with a resident of that state.

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