Respect is definitely earned, but everyone deserves to be treated with courtesy (unless they've proved themselves to be an arse, and even then I'd probably be polite). I cringe a little whenever anyone assumes because they put a title in front of their name they are to be obeyed, or whenever anyone spells their name without a capital letter they assume they are, or want, to be ordered around.

Not everyone will agree on what is right or proper, and there are going to be varying answers depending on how you view the lifestyle, and how strictly you view protocol.
That is actually one of the reasons I posted this. There IS a particular protocol that seems to be expected over the net that doesn't seem to really be in place in the real world and I wondered what people thought about Doms and Masters "demanding" respect from the moment they meet you when in real life it seems (though, I could be wrong because my dealings with other Doms/Masters other than my own are limited as I am not very active in the "community" any further than going to PE clubs once in awhile) that Doms and other people's Masters prefer to earn your respect rather than have it given to them.