system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How do services like 1and1 possess the capability to sell domain names? Who owns them before they are bought? 

Is it a licensed dealer type of thing? Did companies just buy spools of domain names in the beginning and are just selling them off? Why are they not free to register - like finding gold in a river bed?
gpt
No one owns it before you buy it.   When the West was being settled, and the government offered "free land," you still had to pay to have the deed recorded at the county level.  Registering a domain is exactly the same concept.  No one owns it before you do, but it costs money to acknowledge your newfound ownership.  

Also, no one owns your New Idea (patent pending)(TM) before you patent it, but you still have to pay a fee to register the patent.