Cybersituations.

Before the class in which we learned about Cybersquatting, it had honestly never occurred to me as a serious problem that businesses and companies would have with the internet. I always assumed that, since the internet is an open network for people to add to, it operated on a first-come, first-serve system. In fact, I think this is the way it should operate. Despite whether it is on accident or deliberate, it seems to me that there should not be laws that prevent available hostnames from being used. In fact, it seems almost elitist, seeing that the people who would probably win the coveted hostnames are large, rich companies and large, rich people who have the money and ability to file lawsuit.

Discussion of Cybersquatting also brings up the issue of whether or not one has a "right" to their identity online. How can we argue in favor of this when there are "common" and "uncommon" names, implying that people barely have a right to their own identity in real life?

As far as buying a certain domain with intent to sell, I can equate this to a real estate purchase made while considering that the cost of the property might rise. Although this could be considered "cheap", it is just like any other sales strategy. If the company has a huge problem with thinking of a hostname that is not already available, they should just be able to deal with buying it. Especially the case of Mr. Nissan not wanting to give up his own website just because some auto company makes more money than he does. He scored nissan.com before the other company did, and I say more power to him.