The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), engaged in defending civil liberties in the digital world, has published a report on protecting the civil rights of registrants in general top-level domains. EFF experts emphasize that their aim was not to rank domains, but to only draw attention to the registries whose policy could give rise to criticism.
Most criticized were all new gTLDs. They use the Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URS), unlike “old” domain zones subject to the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP). The URS procedure allows trademark owners to press for blocking domain names suspected in the violation of intellectual property rights easier and with fewer expenses than the UDRP. However, EFF experts believe that the URS limits the capabilities of scrupulous registrants to defend their rights. The Donuts and Radix registries came under the most intense criticism. Besides the URS, they offer mechanisms that give the film -making and music industries more powerful capabilities to fight piracy. According to the report, this makes these industries “private domain police” whose impartiality can be called into question.
The report also says that national domain registries can violate registrants’ rights by abiding by laws and instructions of national governments if they, for instance, limit freedom of speech.
Domain Incite believes that in general the EFF report on evaluating the activity of over 40 registries deserves great respect, though the opinions expressed in the report are not surprising because they reflect the EFF’s long-standing position.
