The United States Trade Representative (USTR) is a government agency that participates in the creation of commercial law and coordinates foreign trade. Annually it publishes a report that lists countries and markets where the proper protection of intellectual property is not provided and interests of American businesses suffer. Several days ago USTR published a 2014 report. It is remarkable because for the first time it mentions domain registrars. According to the representatives of record and motion picture companies, domain name registrars do not provide necessary intellectual property protection. We are talking about domain names that contain names of famous artists, films, albums, etc.
In the USTR report it reads that such domains should be blocked after the complaint of the copyright owner. Registrars that do not follow such practice cause damage to the US business. Large Canadian domain registrar Tucows is an example of a company that refuses to block domains due to the copyright owners’ complaints.
In this regard, an article of two lawyers Jeremy Malcolm and Maira Sutton was published on the webpage of human rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation. They point out that the claims contained in the USTR report are not justified. The registration agreements that registrars sign with ICANN do not contain articles that would impose blocking domains when complaints are received. The responsibility of the registrar is to conduct checks on these complaints, but the domain can be blocked only after the court’s or any other national authorities’ decision. This is why actions of Tucows are impeccable. Moreover, Malcolm and Sutton highlight that the very blocking of domains after court’s decision is not the best way because it can set undesirable precedents. For example, after the court’s decision of his country domain registrar can block the domain with a webpage which is under the jurisdiction of another state.
