[At-Large] U.S. seizure of .ORG domain name

[Joly MacFie]

I guess, after reading
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002323----000-.html
that
there isn't much question that the USG has a legal  right to seize property,
but the question still arises when does linking constitute "distribution"..

j

On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 4:08 PM, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:

> On 4 February 2011 15:42, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com> wrote:
>
> > It seems to me that, while there appears a well established process
> whereby
> > the property of counterfeiters are seized - I see this happening
> regularly
> > down the block from my studio near Canal Street NYC - ground zero for
> dodgy
> > handbags and timepieces - it's a different mater when it comes to
> domains,
> > in that is restricting communication, and thus amounts to censorship,
> > raising first amendment issues.
> >
>
> Indeed ... but that's an internal US political and legal discussion beyond
> the bounds of ICANN. Laws such as the Patriot Act and ACTA trod on freedom
> of speech as a matter of course. And American society still has its own
> long
> list of free-expression taboos, whether it's a bare nipple shown on
> broadcast TV or nativity scenes in government buildings. And I've heard a
> rumour that the intellectual property industry has its own views on the
> limitations of free speech that might be quite different from yours or
> mine.
>
> But no matter. This is not an American mailing list or an American domestic
> policy discussion; if we're trying to make this issue useful in an ICANN
> context it needs to be generalized beyond any one country's borders.
>
> Many Western countries have hate-speech laws that outlaw content which
> would
> be protected speech in the US. So if the opposite instance occurred -- say
> a
> "kill the gays" website domain that was registered under a Canadian or
> European TLD but hosted in the US -- the domain expropriation could
> conceivably still happen. The US Constitution would not protect against
> laws
> in the registrant's or registry's country.
>
> IANAL, but this is how I have interpreted the activity I have seen so far.
>
> - Evan
> _______________________________________________
> At-Large mailing list
> At-Large at atlarge-lists.icann.org
> https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large
>
> At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
>



-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
 http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
  VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
---------------------------------------------------------------