Hello Jon,

> 
> Software licences and maintenance contracts are also 
> different to domain
> name licences.  A domain name is a domain name is a domain 
> name.  Microsoft
> Word and Wordperfect (forget who owns it now) are very 
> different products...
> 

A domain name licence is a service which consists of several components,
including the services provided by the registrar and the services provided
by the registry. The services provided by the registry are all the same, but
registrars differ in their level of service.
part of that service can include bundling features such as web hosting,
email forwarding etc.

Registrars will try to differentiate themselves by providing different
levels of service.
The service agreement is the domain name licence.

So perhaps a better analogy with software maintenance agreements where the
software supplier gets the software from a company such as Oracle.  

Regards,
Bruce