location.location.location: a Snapshot of Internet Addresses as Evolving Property

I describe recent developments in the rules governing registration and ownership of Internet and World Wide Web addresses or " domain names. " I propose that elements of domain names are more similar to real estate than to trademarks and, therefore, it would be economically efficient to grant domain name owners stronger rights than those of mere trademark holders. " The life of the law has not been knowledge: it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, ... avowed or unconscious, even the prejudices which judges share with their fellow men, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men [are] governed. " Oliver Wendell Holmes. The Common Law.