US Government Claims Right To Seize Any .com Domain
The US government, after shutting down online sports site Bodog.com, has declared their right to seize any domain ending in .com from your control. It doesn’t end there however, as they also claim the right to seize domains that end in .net, .cc, .tv, .name, and .org. While websites may be owned by companies based elsewhere in the world, if their domain is registered in the US through companies like VeriSign, then the government can seize control. According to the department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the US government only needs to issue a court order to VeriSign in order to take down any site ending with the above. This process also applies to the Public Interest Registry, which controls .org domains. Now for those wondering how the US government can claim jurisdiction over .com when it’s used worldwide, the answer, while asinine, boils down to this: the US created the internet, so they get to make the rules. In the end, the defeat of SOPA and PIPA marks the beginning of the fight for internet freedom, not the end. With bills like ACTA having passed, along with government control of these various domains, things do not bode well for the internet as we know it.
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, dont 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.
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