Who is the owner of all the .com domain names? When I’m paying for one, what does the company actually do in order to generate it for me? It’s not like they’ve already have it and they’ll just hand it over to me. It never existed in the first place.
In: Technology
You aren’t buying the domain *from* them. That would imply that they own it, or are in possession of it before.
You are paying to register it, so that they can maintain a public record that *you* own it.
They in turn are licensed to register it at a central registry. And part of their license requires that they will not allow someone else to register a domain that is already in that registry. The fee you pay is a fee for their service, because they are managing that registration on your behalf (there are actually quite a few pieces involved).
It’s similar to a copyright or patent registry. No one owns that copyright or patent before you do. But you have to pay a fee to register your idea, so it goes on record (and is maintained and recognized) that you now own it.
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