If your domain ends in .com, the United States government says it has the right to seize it from your control, reports Wired. The same goes for any URL that ends in .net, .cc, .tv, .name, and .org.
This troubling declaration of power comes after US authorities shutdown the online sports gambling site Bodog.com last week — even though the website was owned by a Canadian company, which many assumed put it outside of US jurisdiction. Not so, apparently. That’s because the only company allowed to issue new .com domains is VeriSign, which is based — you guessed it — in the US.
According to a spokesperson for the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), anytime the US government wants to take down a .com, .net, .tv, or .name domain, all it has to do is issue a court order to VeriSign, which quickly complies. The same process applies to the Public Interest Registry, which controls the .org top-level domain.
VeriSign, for its part, argues that it is simply obeying the law.
“VeriSign responds to lawful court orders subject to its technical capabilities,” the company said in a statement. “When law enforcement presents us with such lawful orders impacting domain names within our registries, we respond within our technical capabilities.”
The seizure of Bodog is an extension of a government initiative called Operation in Our Sites, which launched in June 2010, and has mainly focused on the seizure of US-based domains hocking counterfeit NFL jerseys, and other knockoff goods. As of November of last year, Operation in Our Sites had successfully seized 352 domains. And it obviously doesn’t look like they plan to stop anytime soon.
There a few reasons this brazen flaunting of power is troubling. First, it suggests that the federal government plans to impose its authority on a wider swath of the Web. Second, it shows that while the Internet is a global service, it is still at the mercy of the US government and US law. Online gambling, for instance, isn’t illegal in all countries that have Internet access. And yet Bodog was shut down simply because US citizens could access it.
Finally, the federal government’s apparent determination to assert its authority on the Web should serve as a wake up call to anyone who thinks that the temporary defeat of SOPA and PIPA marked the end of the fight for Internet freedom. It didn’t. It marked the beginning.
Update: A few readers have asked why .com is under US jurisdiction, given its worldwide use. A good question, and one I should have addressed the first time around. The short, obnoxious answer is: the US made the Internet, so it gets to make the rules.
The somewhat longer answer is this: In 1998, President Bill Clinton established the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit corporation that manages IP address distribution and technology, and oversees all generic top-level domains (gTLD) and country code domains (ccTLD), among other basic Web-related tasks. In 1999, the Department of Commerce, ICANN, and a company called Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) signed into an agreement that gave NSI exclusive rights to distribute domains ending in .com and .net to “accredited registrars.” In 2000, VeriSign purchased NSI, and has controlled .com and .net ever since. (VeriSign also runs 13 “root servers,” which support the Domain Name System, the underling infrastructure of the Internet.)
Essentially, VeriSign has had the government contract for .com and .net distribution since almost the beginning of the World Wide Web as we know it. Some, like the Russian government, don’t believe that an American company should have complete control over the Internet in this way, and want to give that power to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an arm of the United Nations. Which explains why FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell last week wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal warning that the UN was threatening to take over the Internet.
If you want the really long answer, click here.
[Image via hypedesign/Shutterstock]
So I take it ,”USisthenewNaziRegime.com” perhaps would not play out well with Obama? LOL
The internet should be considerd international waters.
virtual iminent domain. not shocked. its bad enough we never really own our property. trying not paying prop tax for a few years.
Whoa!
Infact it was the United Kingdom who designed what became the internet back in the 60′s ,accepting that the USA was the funder of that research. Have a look at Wikipedia for “internet” and that gives the proper and full history of how it evolved. Of course the US THINKS that is owns everything . I believe that the UN should be given ownership of ICANN and .com etc etc
@RobertHaston – whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR TO ABOLISH IT, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. I hope this excerpt is at least referentially recognizable to you and your “famy”.
Generations of my family has served in the military, including me. We have EARNED the right to live in the USA and I have EARNED the right to speak up against the injustices MY government is greviously committing every day. This is simply another step to the inevitable totalitarianism we are not only chasing, but careening towards and picking up speed. (I’ll pause while you google what I just said) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Now that we’re on the same page, not only is MY government subjugating me to their every-growing idiocy-driven idiosyncratic “justice” only understood by the other double-digit-IQ career politicians that keep compounding the fallacy that our government provides any service beyond blatant corruption, and the continuing legislation that only serves the purpose of legalizing and supporting the avenues of such, but now they are affecting people world wide in their effort to cleanse freedom from the remainder of the world where governments allow it. PLEASE help me understand how ANY regulation such as this is for the protection of AMERICA. One could argue that they are protecting people from themselves… F*** ‘em. Let nature take its course and weed out the weak ones. Please stop trying to protect stupidity. “The kid who eats too many marbles doesn’t grow up to have kids of his own” – George Carlin
Because the US owns the internet, right? When will the people get tired of our over bearing government and actually do something about it?
well maby pirates and such should move to the “other” internet and use .pirate domain.
Fricking yankess at it again.
@slackin, your name says enough……
I am proud to be a American citizen, born here in the U. S. A as my famy before me. All I’ve got to say to all you who have anything negative to say is stfu and do something about it. There is nothing keeping you here. You’re free to leave if it’s so bad.
A true American patriot recognizes the wrongs committed by their government, speaks out against those wrongs and tries to right them. While people like you just bitch and moan about people bitching and moaning. Jefferson would be so proud.
You know what Robert, I have worked every day that I have lived in this country, I have 2 kids who were born here as well as an American wife. I pay taxes, that gives me the Right to Bitch and Moan and Complain.
Spoken like a true idiot who has no idea what it means to be an American. You sir are a moron.
First of all, @RobertHaston, me, my family and many others do and have served in the military for generations to defend the right of people to speak their mind. You need to remember that.
As for the others, I’m not suprised that the Government has demonstrated the right to seize a ‘.com’. The government has the right to seize (in the name of national security or for many other reasons) quite a bit of real and virtual property. They also have the right to do quite a bit more than that. You also have the right to protest and to fight it out in court, as long as you comply and then complain. I would fully expect Bodog to file a lawsuit in US Court to protest the seizure of their domain name. Or they may opt to get a ‘.can’ domain name and spend the money they would use for the suit on advertising.