Verisign has a business contract with ICANN to operate as a registry for .com. The contract has a bunch of legalese clauses which can be interpreted in a bunch of ways. They all encourage treating names as property because it makes them alot of money but it's bullshit, you get a limited "license" to a row in the database with a bunch of legal clauses and exceptions. The ultimate guidance for ICANN is supposed to be to protect the health of the internet, though they mostly focus on making money these days.
