US Government Seizes 82 Fraudulent Domains
82 allegedly fraudulent domains were seized last week by U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Justice. Sites that were selling counterfeit goods now greet users with a banner saying that the domain name has been seized by ICE.
The crackdown was part of an government effort known as "Operation In Our Sites v. 2.0." U.S. officials made undercover purchases from sites that trafficked in selling fake clothing and accessories, as well as illegal copies of copyright-protected content. In case the items were confirmed to be counterfeit, a seizure order for the domain would be issued by U.S. magistrate judges.
MPAA applauded this initiative and released the statement thanking U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. Needless to say, this move is of the utmost importance for the country utilizing common law; surprisingly, the Congress is now considering a bill that would allow U.S. government to seize the domains containing infringing materials, also requiring ISPs to cut off the connections to such sites. Further discussions are planned in January.
Nominet plans pulling websites on court order
Nominet, a registry for .uk, set up a process leading to changes in general policies, targeting at allegedly fraudulent websites. The non-profit body is to apply new terms and conditions that would allow suspending domain names when there are 'reasonable grounds' to believe that they are involved in criminal activity.
The changes seem to be necessary taking this year's mass domain suspension carried out by Nominet without any court order given. A division of The Met, Britain's metropolitan police service, has informed Nominet that a number of domains — over 1,200 names — is involved in certain criminal activities, mainly counterfeiting. Nominet then used an unrelated contractual technicality to cut the indicated sites off.
At the moment, Nominet, along with Serious and Organised Crime Agency, is involved in a process that is headed by a joint 'issue group' that includes a number of parties. Nominet is said to need certain formal advice to underpin proposals for a change to terms and conditions.
"Nominet does not have any clear obligation in its registrant Terms and Conditions that a domain name should not be used in connection with any activity that would constitute an offence under UK criminal law," Nominet statement declares. "This is in contrast to many registrars and a number of registries including .org and .biz." Nominet is also pretty sure that the action in case of fraudulent activities performed by means of a certain domain should be entirely taken by a registrar; the registry itself plans to seize domains only in case the registrar has been unable or unwilling to do so.
ICANN Had No Part In Seizing Domains
ICANN policies received a lot of comments in regard to current domain name seizures, as well as Wikileaks scandal. Peter Sunde, the owner of ThePirateBay torrent tracker, has even committed a search for ISPs that might help in 'creating an alternative to ICANN'. Unfortunately, each and every lofty plan of the Internet opposition faces the harsh reality of technical difficulties: creating a structure that is similar to ICANN sounds utopian indeed.
Apparently ICANN had no role in seizing domains whatsoever: ICANN has no technical authority or control over second-level .com domains. However, in case of .com domains, both registrar and the registry have the right to do so. In this very case, it turned out that the seizure was carried out by VeriSign. "VeriSign received sealed court orders directing certain actions to be taken with respect to specific domain names, and took appropriate actions", a company representative commented to domainincite.com.
