How Many Domains Does Your School Own?

ADrexelStudent asks: "A debate has been brought up in recent months at my school, Drexel University, on the issue of whether the school should be allowed to own over 300 domain names. One domain, drexel.com, has been purchased from the students that owned the site, which was being used as a student forum. Another site, drexel.org, is under contest from the school against it's owner, a student. The university claims they didn't know the owner was a student and hence filed a lawsuit claiming trademark violation. Problem is the school doesn't own the trademark, a furniture company with no relation to Drexel does. Out of all the 300+ domains, only one outside the .edu TLD is being used, drexel.com, prompting the argument that this is an attempt by the university to silence student opinion on the Internet. My question for slashdot is how many schools out there purchase domains with no intent to use them, should student tuition be used in this manner, and what is your opinion of this practice?"

Trademark

[ajakk]

Multiple companies can hold a trademark on the same name because the trademark system is broken into several fields. There are 66 trademarks that contain the name Drexel and at least 20 of those are the name Drexel by itself.

One of the biggest problems in domain name fights is when two people who both have a trademark on the name fight it out with each other. Then the regular rules of "give it to whoever has the TM" doesn't work.

You can look up trademarks at tess.uspto.org.

Hmm...

[tsarina]

It does seem rather repressive to take that many domains. It also adds to the problem of running out of domains, since the number of domains is limited (until people get past .com, .org, etc...). But the controls may be good for two reasons. First, then you can't have some student put up a porn site at namethisschool.net while the university's site is at namethisschool.edu or something. The confusion would be really bad, in regards to high schoolers researching colleges, or parents trying to learn what's happening at Johnny's school, and getting the URL wrong. Also, though it does seem like a waste of tuition, perhaps it is more of an investment. Later, when webspace is harder to find, the university could sell off some of those domains and use the money to hire teachers, fund scholarships, etc.

In My Humble Opinion...

[Cap'n Crax]

IMHO, they should respect the way DNS was intended
to be used, and have ONE domain, drexel.edu. If they need to subdivide it, do it they way it
was freaking intended. Like:

www.drexel.edu

mail.drexel.edu

news.drexel.edu

www.drexel.edu/~username

etc... This is the way my university has always
worked, and there has never been a problem for anyone. And yes, this foolishness IS a waste
of university (students!) funds. Someone who is
a student there should write an editorial slamming them for being so stupid.

All IMHO, of course...

@ Virginia Tech

[pjdepasq]

Here at VT, two years ago they clamped down on sites with the Hokie name in them (a trademarked name/symbol of the school mascot), and other VT/ Virginia Tech domain names. Their reasoning at the time, I recall, is that use of the names violated their registered marks.

In addition, they were going after sites which used player likenesses and images (i.e. Michael Vick) because under the NCAA rules, student-athletes are not permitted to endorse a product or service. VT was apparently concerned in that case about NCAA sanctions related to student run web pages which used player images and likenesses to promote their site.

My point, it's not always the case that the school is trying oppress free speech, but rather protecting the use of their marks and are worrying about other factors, like the NCAA situation.

Still here at VT, students are not permitted to use the school logos on their web pages (see this page [vt.edu]).

Domains? One.

[neema]

If they need subcategories, let them get subdomain names. All in the .edu range. Therefore, if lets say columbia wanted a specific domain for it's law program, it'd be law.columbia.edu.

Reasons why they should stick to .edu:

1) It makes things less confusing. When you want to find your college on the web, you'll basically enter it's name and clip on .edu with suprising accuracy, even if a few name variation attempts are needed.

2) They're educational, not commercial. They're not an organization, really. That's like the government wanting all forms of they're domain, when they have .gov for that very purpose. If collegs are allowed to get other domain names, then the next domain name I want is neema.edu.

Re:Why is this a question?

[CodeMonky]

If it is a public university (at least in fl) you are required to provide access to your budgets and payroll since tax dollars are funding the university, through that you can see how the tuition money is being spent.

Re:300+ domains?

[mosch]

Not a full list but I found these from mucking around whois.

• scienceinmotion.org
• cshelp.org
• drexelmedical.net
• edrexel.com
• drexelbank.org
• itatdraxel.net
• drexeldotcom.net
• drexel-shaft.org
• i-drexel.net
• accessdrexel.org
• drexelnet.com

Re:In My Humble Opinion...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm hte guy that posted this question. They do EXACTLY what you suggest. Hence the reason I posted the question as some of the domains are things like drexelsucks, drexxxel and other porn domains, and a ton of others (hence 300 domains). The school paper has had MANY editorials and articles and commentaries (and anyhting else you can think of) on this topic, and I felt it was good to get outsider opinion.

The school prez was once quoted as saying he doesnt want websites popping up "that are not in commensurate with the school" We students see that as clear attempt at cencorship.

The comp ethics professor last winter semester discussed this exact topic. (He's also the one responsible for introducing me to /. :)) He sorta has mixed opinions on it.

The administration did miss one site: www.drexelshaft.com [drexelshaft.com]

Re:Good day Mr. Orwell. How are things?

[Anonymous Coward]

Drexel has a lot of bad PR they don't want the world to see. For instance, last year the school was ranked #1 in the category of school is tiny, unsightly or both. Not exactly a deep dark secret, but they would prefer less people know about it, and drexel.com was full of students bitching about stuff like that and the pitifull state of Drexels financial aid office.

Re:300+ domains?

[Anonymous Coward]

look through this [whois.net]. It's basically a list of domain names that contain the string 'drexel' Some are legit sites, others are what's being talked about above (like drexel-shaft.com/org/net, drexelsucks.com/net/org, etc).

EDU domain rules

[macdaddy]

EDU rules allow a 4-year university to have only one permanent .edu domain. You might know of a few universities that have more than one. Kansas State University [ksu.edu] is one of those. Somebody got the brilliant idea to move from ksu.edu to k-state.edu. (Whatever dumbass thought of that should be shot, but that's just my opinion.) They were allowed to have two for a transitional period. Fortunately the plan died (last I heard) and KSU will stick with ksu.edu. That's supposed to be the only time a university can have more than one .edu domain--for a transition period.

Re:Trademarks

[Anonymous Coward]

Only you're an idiot. In the real world, multiple people can have trademarks in the same name - same mark + different trade = different trademark. (They also don't have to be registered or identified with a symbol to be protected.) I'd expect anyone claiming to deal with governments about IP to know at least that much.

Gee, sounds like Drexel business as usual

[schnurble]

I went to Drexel from 96 to 99, but after I was in a near-fatal auto accident in March of 99 that caused me to be in the hospital for a month, and a wheelchair for two more, they decided it wasn't a valid reason for me to miss a term of class, and cancelled all of my financial aid. Gee, thanks!

Anyway, yeah, this is standard operating procedure for Drexel. They put me on probation for having an A record referencing a non-drexel domain pointing to my linux box (and turned off my ResNet access). I was wondering where Drexel.Com went...

A point of fact, however. Drexel Furniture -is- related to Drexel University. A. J. Drexel founded both. And Drexel Hill, PA was named such because AJ Drexel's family was from there. Etc, etc. Remember, Anthony J Drexel was a bigwig back then. Lotsa cash, power, etc.

-j (ujdisher@mcs account still lives, too!)

Re:Why is this a question?

[Flower]

The exchange of money for goods or services is limited to that exchange and gets you no other entitlements.

Having gone to a community college and a private institution I have to say that this viewpoint is by far too narrow. Whether you want to believe it or not, there are enormous differences between the experience you have at a community college and a university but none of those differences support your simplistic capitalistic arguement. Still, I'll argue it from your standpoint.

You are not paying tuition for just classes. You are paying tuition for an investment in your future. I'm paying for good study areas, a safe campus, good equipment, quality classrooms.

I'm paying for the chance to make good contacts, join organizations and for the chance to be an active participant in the community if I so desire. In return, the college gets the opprotunity to receive donations from me once I'm an alumnus. The more personal the experience is for the student the better the chance that the college will continue to receive funding from them.

That need to instill a sense of community within the individual requires giving the student a voice in how their money is spent. And if that voice is loud enough, it behooves the university to take it into account when they make their budget.

Whether one takes complete advantage of what is being offered is up to the student. To take a spin off of your McDonalds analogy, just because I buy a happy meal does not mean I have to eat all of my fries or finish my coke. But by the same token, you have no right to limit another's experience just because you think the only entitlement you are paying for is some books and a few hours in a classroom.

Re:In My Humble Opinion...

[rbrome]

I am a student at Drexel, and the domain issue is just one the MANY ways the University screws over its students. We call it The Drexel Shaft.

Luckily, when Drexel bought all those domain names, they missed THESHAFT.COM and THESHAFT.ORG, which I quickly snapped up.

THESHAFT.ORG is now site dedicated to free speech about the actions of the Drexel administration and the many ways in which it screws its own students, parents, and faculty.

Re:In My Humble Opinion...

[mpe]

www.drexel.edu.us, because they are not an international educational institution.

There actually arn't that many international educational instututions...

So, IMO, Sun or Microsoft deserve the .com, but the mom-and-pop store down the street is supposed to get the .co.us.

Except that .co.us would be the entire US state of Colorado. mom & pop should probably be more something like mon-and-pop.district.city.state.us. One of the problems with the .us namespace is inflexibility (and lack of logical delgegation.)

Another question on domain names: What does the .ac stand for in british educational domains (they use .ac instead of .edu)?

It stands for "academic". Used probably because it's 2 letters rather than 3. Anyway .ac.uk only covers tertiary education, primary and secondary is .sch.uk (for political reasons.)

Blame the greedy registrars

[CyberBry]

I own the domain name for my highschool, and I have been called no less than 4 times by Network Solutions since we bought it in 1998. First they were asking if we wanted northernsecondary.org and .net to go along with our .com - they said that if we didn't buy them, students might and use them maliciously. Then they started recommending we buy things like mynorthernsecondary.com and northernsecondarysucks.com and so on.

So if you're wondering why your school owns so many, maybe you ought to start telling your school administration to stop listening to the phonecalls from netsol :)