U.S. Government Seizes BitTorrent Search Engine Domain and More

[Robin Gross]

The latest info that I've seen is that Verisign assigned new DNS servers at the Registry level, and then locked the domain so that even the Registrar can't update it.  So now it looks like it may have been VeriSign who "seized" them.  No word on ICANN's role in this situation, if any.  



On Nov 26, 2010, at 8:29 PM, Marc Perkel wrote:

> So was it ICANN that actually did the seizing?
> 
> On 11/26/2010 7:25 PM, Michael Haffely wrote:
>> 
>> The concerning part about the report from today is that the domain owner never received any complaint or due process before the domains were seized.  It appears that no Cease and Desist, warrant, suit, or other criminal complaint was brought up before the domain was taken.  What if (for an example) this behavior is taken up by the Patent and Copyright "trolls".  What happens to an individual/nonprofit/organization when they have their domain yanked out from under them? 
>> 
>> If ICANN is to seize domains from their rightful owners by demand of a law enforcement agency we need to have a clear, *rapid* appeals process to prevent abuse by corporations, law enforcement agencies, and governments.  
>> 
>> 
>> -Mike H.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 8:46 PM, Andrew A. Adams <aaa at meiji.ac.jp> wrote:
>> Very similar moves are happening in the UK, with Nominet (UK non-profit with
>> the .uk (and .gb) country-code delegation) engaging with the UK's SOCA
>> (Serious and Organised Crime Agency *) to remove 1200 "sites engaged in
>> selling counterfeit goods" recently and now doing a more explicit deal with
>> the police to take down the DNS registration for sites "alleged to be
>> involved in criminal activity".
>> 
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/25/nominet_crime/
>> 
>> (*) The SOCA is a rather dodgy organisation, IMHO. When it was set up the
>> then home secrewtary made a big thing of it not being actually police and
>> therefore not bound by the requirements that the police have to respect the
>> human rights of citizens. THat's a recipe for a secret police operating
>> extra-judicially and here we see exactly that kind of approach.
>> 
>> I am very worried by these kinds of moves. Zittrain's "The Future of the
>> Internet" and Mueller's "Networks and States" concerns about censorship
>> becoming the norm not the exception online seem to be coming true. While I'm
>> not in favour of criminals having free reign, the trouble is that all the
>> hard won freedoms such as due process, balance of rights, etc. seem to be
>> being thrown out in the digital domain.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Professor Andrew A Adams                      aaa at meiji.ac.jp
>> Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration,  and
>> Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics
>> Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan       http://www.a-cubed.info/
>> 




IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
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