What a terrible lack of information in this article.
As is standard for a Phoronix.com "article".
X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
11–20 of 91 posts
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#12So can they just re-register it when it expires, or is the reason they can't do that because lots of people will be waiting to register it at the moment it expires?
That's an interesting question given that one letter domain names for .org are generally not available, x.org was grandfathered in.
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#13They're not losing it because of some legal battle or copyright claim, they're losing it because they lost contact with the guy who really owns it, and waited until they had one week to go to make the issue public.
Couldn't they file a trademark claim to takeover ownership?
It's not quite that simple. Owning a trademark doesn't automatically give you the right to seize the corresponding domain names. ICANN has a dispute resolution policy that sets out rules for how such situations are handled: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/policy-2012-02-25-en
Basically, if someone snaps up the x.org domain, and can make a case that they have any legitimate purpose for it other than impersonating or extorting money from the X.org organization, they get to keep it.
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#14So can they just re-register it when it expires, or is the reason they can't do that because lots of people will be waiting to register it at the moment it expires?
My first thought was: "Get a bunch of folks with affinity for x.org to variously try and pick it up when released, and then gift it to them."
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#15They're not losing it because of some legal battle or copyright claim, they're losing it because they lost contact with the guy who really owns it, and waited until they had one week to go to make the issue public.
They've also lost and then regained their 501(c)(3) a few years ago: https://lwn.net/Articles/569098/
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#16From: https://wiki.gandi.net/en/contacts/troubleshooting/lost-hand...
"Since domains can be renewed from any handle, sometimes people create a new handle to renew a domain. (While this is not a problem in itself, it can create confusion, so it is only recommended as a last resort.)"
Basically you don't need access to the domain to renew it, you only need access if you want make changes. A random member of the public can renew a domain for you without contacting you.
Does it not work that way with Network Solutions? Can someone not just simply renew it for them?
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#17You used to be able to renew Network Solutions domains without owning them. This didn't give the renewing party any rights; it just put money in. You can't do that online any more. But you might be able to do it over the phone.
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#18They're not losing it because of some legal battle or copyright claim, they're losing it because they lost contact with the guy who really owns it, and waited until they had one week to go to make the issue public.
No, they're in danger of massive registration headaches because they don't have a clear chain of proof of migration from the LLC (since dissolved) to the 501(c)3 that succeeded it, and they're either not in contact with the person who was the administrative contact when the LLC existed or he's being unhelpful. I'll note that the listing was last updated in 2007, so his name's been on the contact info for 8+ years - p…
They don't need to trademark (verb) X to get a trademark (noun). Registration is a good idea, but failure to register doesn't mean any joe can start using X.org. So long as the organization used the mark in trade (ie sold something and/or took donations) their basic trademark will be protected.
Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#19Re: X.Org Might Lose Its Domain Name
#20Since not even the X.Org Foundation is particularly attached to X anymore, they could just let it lapse and register wayland.org or something.