VeriSign Demands Power To Kill “Abusive” Websites

[MicroGuy]

The global authority over all .com domain names, VeriSign, is demanding the power to terminate websites deemed “abusive” when ordered to by government without a court order or any kind of oversight whatsoever.

http://www.infowars.com/verisign-demands-power-to-kill-abusive-websites/

 

[Name Trader]

Time to get another Registry for .com and .net domains. This is outrageous.

 

[alien51]

I quote this from the news article where they lifted the story:

"It's not yet clear how VeriSign would handle a request to suspend a .com domain that was hosting content legal in the US and Europe but illegal in, for example, Saudi Arabia or Uganda."

I already acceded to the fact that Verisign is a US company within US laws jurisdiction. But asking for more god-like powers and disregarding any kind of legal process, will make the US not any more different than China.

It seems the United States cannot withstand a dose of their own "freedom and rule of law" medicine.

 

[DnEbook]

demanding ??

 

[Veronika11]

punishing somebody without or before having an absolute judgement... I'm not American, but is that possible under American law?

 

[the_poet]

They're shamefully doing everything they can to make .com less desirable.

 

[Dave_Z]

punishing somebody without or before having an absolute judgement... I'm not American, but is that possible under American law?

Only to a certain limited and extreme extent. (e.g. seizing drug lab with warrant without notifying lab owner first.) A problem here is they want to mainly shoot first and ask questions later.

DomainNameWire reported that at least VeriSign acknowledged the potential harm this can do to false or dud claims, and purportedly are exploring a resolution mechanism for this.

 

[DnEbook]

yes it's the shoot first aspect that would worry most

also the element of overseas laws is also a conumdrum

 

[alien51]

punishing somebody without or before having an absolute judgement... I'm not American, but is that possible under American law?

As far as i know, if it's a threat to national security, then yes it's possible. But it has to be ordered by the Department of Justice who will instruct the FBI to knock on your door and confiscate the servers.

But as far as the "business owner" (for example in this case, Verisign) is concerned, i think they already have provisions stated in their "User Agreement" with anyone who registers domains with them.

For example, when you reg with Godaddy, there's a user agreement there which says you can't use the domain for hate or racist purposes, illegal porn, counterfeit selling, etc. In effect, Godaddy can shut your domain down if they see your domains are being used against their "TOS".

Perhaps it's almost the same as the "self-policing" done by Google, Facebook, or Twitter, when they shut down user accounts that they believe violate their "TOS".

I don't think Google even filed a case in Court when they terminate people's Adsense accounts with no explanation required. They just kill your business like a switch, and expect you to beg for mercy.

 

[cache]

this will decrease the value of .coms

 

[Veronika11]

VeriSign has withdrawn its request for new powers to delete domain names being used for abusive purposes, just a few days after filing it with ICANN.

that was quick :p

 

[MicroGuy]

that was quick :p

That just proves it. They really do read NamePros!

 

[DnEbook]

wow ........ some common sense

WHo would have guessed ??

 

[Dave_Z]

that was quick :p

Makes you wish the powers-that-be can decide that quickly on other issues, no?