[NCSG-Discuss] Closed Generics - a letter together

[Milton L Mueller]

No no, you have missed the thrust of the argument, David.

I do not claim that names have no connection to their signifier. I simply claim that registering a name in the DNS does not give one any special POWER or influence over the signified market in the real world.

The opponents of closed generics, on the other hand, are claiming that registering a name automatically gives the registrant powerful forms of control over the signified.

Thus, they would believe that if I registered that label in the DNS (Milton-the-proclaimer-of-annoying-specious-nonsense) I would gain monopoly power over the proclamation of annoying specious nonsense - or, at least, some kind of powerful edge in the annoying specious nonsense market. And clearly, that is false, because there is no monopoly - there is tons of competition coming from this list, including from you! Indeed, I believe you may have won that competition already!

--MM


From: David Cake [mailto:dave at difference.com.au]
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 10:47 PM
To: Milton L Mueller
Cc: NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: [NCSG-Discuss] Closed Generics - a letter together

I've decided to rename Milton Milton-the-proclaimer-of-annoying-specious-nonsense. As he believes names are powerless and have no intrinsic meaning that connects to their signifier, this shouldn't bother him at all, and I expect him to find this a development that he welcomes and applauds, as by doing so he is able to demonstrate support for his argument.

Cheers

David

On 26/02/2013, at 11:18 AM, Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu<mailto:mueller at syr.edu>> wrote:




Allowing closed generics will lead to massive traffic redirections worse than on .xxx circumstances compelling the concerned to take that string's allowable defensive registrations route.
[Milton L Mueller] How exactly? Alex, are you falling for the old "magic of the top level" argument? So if someone registers .Book, they magically acquire all the wealth and power of everything associated with books.
I am casting a spell on you, Alex. I have named a file on my server "Gakuru" and soon there will be ahttp://internetgovernance.org/gakuru on the Internet. With this, I will have gained full control over you. Now, watch Alex stop arguing with me and start agreeing!
Magic is wonderful.

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