[Chapter-delegates] .org domain seized by U.S. Department of Justice

[Patrick Vande Walle]

On Wed, 2 Feb 2011 15:59:37 -0500, Eric Burger wrote: 

> Are you
sure this has ANYTHING to do with the registry? I just did some whois
searches on some seized domains, not just rojadirecta.com [1], and the
entries look like normal registrations, done by normal registrars, only
pointing to ICE servers, not the original registrant's servers.

> Has
there been a case anywhere in the world where a domain was taken where
the registrant's registrar was NOT in the U.S.? I am asking for
informational purposes - I do not know the answer and would be quite
interested in the answer.

Eric, 

Of course, I am not totally sure this
has anything to do with the registry. How could I ? The deafening
silence of PIR on the case does not help. It could be the registrar, but
again, GoDaddy did not comment the issue either. According to this post
on another list, it was indeed the registry that received the notice
from the court, although I could not verify the information:
http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/at-large/2011q1/007570.html 


I would be relieved if this has happened on the registrar level. At
least, registrants have a choice when choosing registrars and can factor
in that sort of risk. At the registry level, this is not the case,
unless you want to move to another TLD. 

My concern here is that this
creates a legal uncertainty for domain name registrants in .org, which
may lead to less registrations, less profits and finally less moneyfor
ISOC. PIR needs to speak up to reassure its customer base. 

I do not
have the answer to your second question. I think such cases are still
minimal. 

Patrick 



Links:
------
[1] http://rojadirecta.com
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