Fwd: [governance] Verisign seizes .com domain registered via foreign Registrar on behalf of US Authorities

Sat Mar 10 06:15:04 CET 2012

Come to think of it, I guess that the gTLD expansion plan can be
considered somewhat of an ICANN answer to this ...

Nicolas

On 3/10/2012 12:06 AM, Nicolas Adam wrote:
> Disregarding the thorny issue that it must be done sometimes for
> botnet and such, and just concentrating on the
> political/jurisdictional/authority/flow-down-contract issue:
>
> IANA/Icann can *assert* *its* authority on the root file and say to VS
> something like: don't disrupt DNS connectivity in other parts of the
> world via changes in the root. You may safely respond to local
> querries within your technical capability, but this is off limit.
>
> I'm not arguing now that this would necessarily be sound policy (it
> would clearly be regarding IPR, less clearly with spambots), but it's
> got everything to do with authority assertion (or lack thereof) on the
> root.
>
> I will be happy to learn be being contradicted in 7 different ways.
>
> Nicolas
>
> On 3/9/2012 9:50 PM, Milton L Mueller wrote:
>> I am no fan of the domain name seizures but there is an unfortunate
>> level of confusion about what is really at issue here.
>> The domain seizures imposed on VeriSign actually have nothing to do
>> with the fact that the US controls the authoritative root zone file.
>> Rather, they are allowed by the fact that the domains are registered
>> under .com, and the .com registry falls under US jurisdiction. We
>> could delegate root zone authority to the ITU, the United Nations,
>> the IGF, Russia, China or the IGP and it wouldn't make one bit of
>> difference to the ability of the FBI, ICE, or any other US authority
>> to order Verisign to disable a second level domain registered under
>> .com. Only Verisign, the operator of the .com registry, can without
>> the consent of the registrant redirect a dns query from the
>> nameserver for foo.com to ice.gov.
>>
>> IANA cannot do this. ICANN cannot do this.
>>
>> Just so you know.
>>
>> --MM
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: NCSG-Discuss [mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of
>>> Adam Peake
>>> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 2:01 AM
>>> To: NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>>> Subject: Re: [NCSG-Discuss] Fwd: [governance] Verisign seizes .com
>>> domain registered via foreign Registrar on behalf of US Authorities
>>>
>>> Anyone know how many of the take-downs have used Verisign?
>>>
>>> And wonder how many of the new TLD applicants have selected US-based
>>> technical providers.
>>>
>>> During WSIS civil society frequently commented on US' unilateral
>>> control
>>> of the root as unacceptable.  Many submissions made, can only find this
>>> now... from 2005:
>>>
>>> "We would like to underscore that unilateral control of the root zone
>>> file is a public policy issue. We agree with WGIG that in future no
>>> single government should have a pre-eminent role in global
>>> governance of
>>> the logical infrastructure of the Internet."
>>>
>>>
>>> Perhaps time to make it a public policy issue again?  With the AoC and
>>> other improvements the US has been pretty good since WSIS.  These name
>>> seizures are a nasty step back.
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 7, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Nicolas Adam<nickolas.adam at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> There is also this article [tech dirt] that is very interesting, that
>>>> goes along the one that you referenced below [blog easyDNS] (and that
>>>> is well worth highlighting a second time for this crowd).
>>>>
>>>> This goes straight to the heart of ICANN's legitimacy. It goes to who
>>>> they cater to, who they don't oppose, to the limit of its autonomy,
>>>> what perception of itself it conveys through its actions and
>>> inactions, etc.
>>>> I don't pretend to have a ready diplomatic/political fix that ICANN
>>>> can just roll-out as a guide going forward. But it seems to me that
>>>> its political choices, prudent and wise as they may seem to the ones
>>>> in charge (or the ones preparing Dan's one-pagers), are unfortunately
>>>> the hallmark of a lack of identity and the signs of a sure downfall.
>>>>
>>>> No new type of political body like ICANN can survive without making
>>> its bed.
>>>> Somehow, somewhere. How it manages itself now, marvelously
>>>> noncommittally, only serves at alienating stakeholders that could
>>>> otherwise turn out to support it. And it never gets anything to show
>>>> for it from the ones that it punctually accommodate.
>>>>
>>>> I see this as a very important Board-level long term issue, that needs
>>>> strong leadership and attention. The users (writ large) will not
>>>> tolerate ICANN if it cannot provide consistency and predictability,
>>>> that is, an identity.
>>>>
>>>> Nicolas
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 3/1/2012 8:17 AM, Adam Peake wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Is this new, or just more of what ICE has been doing before.  I don't
>>>> remember if Verisign's been used in this way before.  Clip from the
>>>> blog post (link below)
>>>>
>>>> "We all know that with some US-based Registrars (*cough* Godaddy
>>>> *cough*), all it takes is a badge out of a box of crackerjacks and you
>>>> have the authority to fax in a takedown request which has a good shot
>>>> at being honoured. We also know that some non-US registrars, it takes
>>>> a lot more "due process-iness" to get a domain taken down.
>>>>
>>>> But now, none of that matters, because in this case the State of
>>>> Maryland simply issued a warrant to .com operator Verisign, (who is
>>>> headquartered in California) who then duly updated the rootzone for
>>>> .com with two new NS records for bodog.com which now redirect the
>>>> domain to the takedown page."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Adam
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: michael gurstein<gurstein at gmail.com>
>>>> Date: Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 9:47 PM
>>>> Subject: [governance] Verisign seizes .com domain registered via
>>>> foreign Registrar on behalf of US Authorities
>>>> To: governance at lists.igcaucus.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://blog2.easydns.org/2012/02/29/verisign-seizes-com-domain-registe
>>>> red-vi a-foreign-registrar-on-behalf-of-us-authorities/
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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