[At-Large] U.S. seizure of .ORG domain name
Adam Peake
ajp at glocom.ac.jp
Wed Feb 2 13:58:27 UTC 2011
I propose the At Large/ALAC protest the U.S. government's seizure of
domain name Rojadirecta.org.
Rojadirecta is a popular sports streaming and P2P download site.
Rojadirecta is a legitimate Spanish business. Two Spanish courts have
ruled the site operates legally.
It seems the U.S. Government Homeland Security's Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) division used the TLD as the means of
seizure in an attempt to take down the site. If the action was
against the registrar then a registrant would at least have a choice
of jurisdiction. But this action on ORG, and the actions on .COM
names last November essentially means the U.S. government considers
COM, NET and ORG to be nothing more than ccTLDs subject to U.S. whim
(this isn't a legal action, there has been no court case, no due
process.)
Rojadirecta is now available under other TLDs
<http://www.rojadirecta.me> <http://www.rojadirecta.es>
<http://www.rojadirecta.in> as well its original IP address
<http://109.235.53.189/>.
Expect there will be a lot written about this, this article's ok as a
starting point:
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110201/10252412910/homeland-security-seizes-spanish-domain-name-that-had-already-been-declared-legal.shtml>
I hope At Large will issue a statement protesting the use of the TLD
registry as a means of takedown. That it recommends when the NET, ORG
and COM contracts are renegotiated they should move to a jurisdiction
where such unilateral action by a government is not possible. That
the new applicant guidebook require applicants to only locate in
jurisdictions where such unilateral action by a government is not
possible.
Legitimate businesses should not be subject to the whim of a U.S. agency.
Adam
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