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Fortunately, her hosting provider has a link for reporting such things.

Report them here

Barbara talks about the "Miracle Pill" known as Resveratrol

Notice they didn't user her last name. But they use her image and the abc News logo ... their domain name is hilarious, news3news.com (looks like newsnews and 3news were taken, ha) which leads one to the registrant residing at:

PO Box 12068
George Town, Grand Cayman KY1-1010

P.O. Box in the Cayman Islands. Imagine that. They don't even bother to use domainsbyproxy or a similar service like most of the other domains listed in this Wired story.

Selling questionable meds is probably pretty hard to prosecute ... but using abc's logo and Walters' image for advertising is definitely prosecution worthy. I hope some of these companies go after this scum.

> go check out http://domainsbyproxy.com/
>
> awesome.. ;)

That's the service GoDaddy uses when you chose "Make this domain private". They hold the registration and then just forward all the e-mail (and US mail too I believe) to whatever they have on record for you.

Most registrars have something similar.

tooo funny!
Registrant:
      Domains by Proxy, Inc.
      DomainsByProxy.com
      15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
      Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
      United States

      Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
      Domain Name: GROKLAW.COM
            Created on: 26-Sep-02
            Expires on: 26-Sep-09
            Last Updated on: 06-Dec-05

go check out http://domainsbyproxy.com/

awesome.. ;)

-dirtbag

Well, firstly, I don't believe for a second that David Gerard did this. I suspect that right now David is at home asleep or away on holidays. The site notice that appeared had a quote from me that I made on IRC about 10 minutes after I said it. DavidGerard was not online at the time.

Secondly, it is not possible to tell who owns the domain wikitruth.info as it is registered by Domains by Proxy (just do a whois).

It does appear that an admin has gone rogue however. This is another issue we'll have to deal with: possibly by keeping a log of all people who view deleted articles.

Ta bu shi da yu

I've noticed that Carl Bialik from Wall Street Journal has a Slashdot user account that proudly and upfrontly states that he works and writes for the Wall Street Journal, and with that disclaimer I have no problem with someone submitting their own stories. However, I sort of had the feeling that "Andrew" was pumping his own site, but no disclaimer. Oddly, the shortflip.com site has no names of authors, proprietors, business owners, or anything. Their whois record lists a registrar as "Domains by Proxy". There is absolutely no mention of any names at all on the website, even on the articles! A quick Google search for shortflip turns up a digg account of someone working for shortflip who is also pumping their own site, who I assume is "Andrew".

I'm sure it's just me being anal but I think the ethical thing to do here is to mention that yes, you are pumping your own site, and not to go to extreme lengths to cover your tracks. Dude, no one cares that you are pumping your site, but doing it under the guide of some neutral third party is sort of shady. My .02

According to whois it seems to be some company named "Domains by Proxy, Inc." which is specialized on hiding the original registrar: http://www.domainsbyproxy.com/

Put your money where your mouth is:

http://www.domainsbyproxy.com/

I'm pretty sure that it is illegal to provide false contact information for a WHOIS record. Not to mention owning a domain name is a priviledge, not a right. If you wish to own a domain name you have to play by the rules, just like registering your car and having insurance. If privacy is really that important to you, don't buy a domain name!

There is a way, I use Domains By Proxy. I got on all my domains I registered at GoDaddy and its like a 7-9 dollar fee per domain per year. Basically you put in your real information, and they post the "fake proxy" information on the whois. Any incomming spam to the contact information is filtered out by their service, and I even think you can deny any incomming emails to that "fake" contact email unless it comes from Domains By Proxy or GoDaddy (your registrar in my case GoDaddy). I have had the service for almost 2 years now, and I have yet to get a single piece of unsolicited email on my contact email address. Check it out, its worth it. Here is an example they put of their proxy service before and after here

There is a way, I use Domains By Proxy. I got on all my domains I registered at GoDaddy and its like a 7-9 dollar fee per domain per year. Basically you put in your real information, and they post the "fake proxy" information on the whois. Any incomming spam to the contact information is filtered out by their service, and I even think you can deny any incomming emails to that "fake" contact email unless it comes from Domains By Proxy or GoDaddy (your registrar in my case GoDaddy). I have had the service for almost 2 years now, and I have yet to get a single piece of unsolicited email on my contact email address. Check it out, its worth it. Here is an example they put of their proxy service before and after here

If I recall, suprnova.org is hosted somewhere in eastern Europe, and that is why it hasn't already been taking down.

Domains by Proxy, Inc.
15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160 PMB353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Shows that whoever registered the domain registered it with a company in the US, who has a TOS that states they release info to government/law enforcement agency on demand. Not very smart if suprnova is based in eastern Europe...

Some registration and hosting companies will hold your details on file but put their own contact information in the whois records and forward and legitimate communications to you. Domains by Proxy specifically advertises such a service but some hosting companies will do it on request.

I thought this was illegal, I rem filling out something with some legal stuff when I signed up for my domains, and I was bummed that I would have to put my personal details out there. Then I found Domains by proxy and I didn't have to. So, I didn't break the law, but you can't find my name/address/email with a simple whois!

CB

Its probably legit. Through godaddy I use domains by proxy, which rather handily replaces my legitimate details with their legitimate details and a fowarding email address.

You've never had a right to privacy as a domain owner. If that bothers you, don't use DNS and just publish your web server's IP number.

Or:

• Look for a country-code domain that will allow you to keep your contact info private. I don't know of any that will; but I haven't really looked through the list.
• Use a proxy registration service and don't break their terms of service. (You shouldn't be spamming anyway. :-)
• Buy a subdomain from a private party. I own oligarch.com, so I could hypothetically offer to let you pay me to make NS records on oligarch.com pointing lostcluster.oligarch.com to your name servers. Presto, you now have a working domain delegated to you with none of your info in the WHOIS. True, it's not a second-level domain; but there are many situations where people find this acceptable, particularly when it's under a nice, short second-level domain (e.g., cjb.net).
• Turn off your computer. Go outside and play. <g>

And I'm sure there are other ways to go about using the DNS without putting your data in an ICANN-controlled database.

For those who fear stalkers, etc., there are services like Domains by Proxy (related to the registrar Go Daddy). These services will register the domain on your behalf; they require valid contact info from you, and they put their own contact info in the WHOIS database. This is technically in line with the ICANN rules because the proxy registrant is the real registrant of the domain. (Although they have a contractual obligation of doing it on your behalf.)

If you break the terms of service -- for example, if you use the domain for spam support or to commit illegal activities -- the proxy registrant will expose your real identity. Otherwise, your privacy is pretty well protected with these services.

I've used those types of services (including Domains by Proxy) to register domains on behalf of minor children who shouldn't have their contact info exposed online, and for other purposes requiring some level of privacy. For my own domains, I'm not afraid to use my valid PO box address and phone number.

(Note: I am not affiliated with these services in any way, except as a customer.)

I just used a service called Domains By Proxy to keep my personal information just that on my registered domain. It was $9 a year (I just missed the $7 deal they were running) which isn't too bad considering my registrar only charges me $8 so the grand total is $17.

I think it would be great if the service were free, but as I'm still paying less than I would if I had registered at Internic.ca, I can't complain too loudly.

As a side note, I like the fact that you can lookup who owns which domain. (It allows me to wonder why some guy in Rhode Island registered the .net and .org to my almost useless .com) I just wish that I could keep spammers of all flavors from seeing/using it.

Of all the domains I have (over 2 dozen in all), I have only 3 domains with valid WHOIS information. It's not MY information but the information of the proxy company that GoDaddy uses. Other than that ALL of my domains use false WHOIS information. I guess I'm a criminal after all.

A realistic solution to it is to allow people to falsify WHOIS records, but require the registries to maintain records of accurate contact information to be provided in the event of a (legitimately issued) subpoena or an investigation by law enforcement, provided they have a warrant for the information.

You mean like this? The whois record for my domain does not list my info.

I use these folks whenever I want to register a domain name. It's a nice, cheap, legal way to protect my whois info from anyone I feel like. And no, I'm not getting anything for saying this, it's just a cool idea and one that I appreciate (and use).

...all that's going to happen is that people are going to put in correct information, and then make it unlisted. When the people in Congress are given the analogy with the phone system (ie, unlisted numbers) it will become a matter of subpeonas, and then for the courts in the cases of infringement, as it should be.

Domains Priced Right is another DBP affiliate, but I can't tell if they are simply a storefront reseller for either DBP or godaddy -- their "company info" page lists the same address in Scottsdale, AZ as DBP's whois info. It really seems like it would be in DBP's best interest to list all of their affiliates somewhere. Apparently when you reload the How to get a private registration page, you get a randomly selected affiliate for the "purchase/convert/transfer" links. So far the only two I've seen are godaddy and DPR, but there could be others.

I don't think I've seen anyone post this yet or not, but ICANN maintains a list of all accredited registars. You may be surprised how many there are. It also lists which TLDs each one can register for you.

Naturally, some are probably much better than others. I'd recommend godaddy.com, gandi.net, or joker.com.

Additionally, if do not want your contact information to be public, you can use DomainsByProxy.com. You register through a registrar that's one of DBP's affiliates and pay an extra $15/year or so and they act as a proxy for the domain contact. They list their postal and email addresses for your domain, and forward you anything that is sent, optionally filtering for spam. You still own the domain name, and the default if anything comes up (i.e. they suspect you of spamming or something) is that the registration information reverts to your own true contact information... So it's kind of "fail-safe" in that respect.

I use Domains by Proxy so my info isn't displayed in a WHOIS; theirs is in it's place. They keep all my info private and serve as a 'proxy' between me and anyone needed to contact me. They'll email if they need me to do something in regards to my domains, it's so nice not having all of my personal details out there. I buy my domains from GoDaddy, and they've partnered with Domains by Proxy and offer it as an option when you're buying domains, that's how I found out about it, but everyone should check it out.

CB

Something like this, where contact information is available if you violate best Internet practices (such as by spamming) and people can get in touch with you if they need to let you know that your server has been taken over by a Russian junior high student, but if you are a good netizen you can get by without being hassled.

I imagine for most people who just want to run a regular website without the hassle of spam/telemarketers, this is the way to go.

Domains By Proxy specializes in just this. Ignore all these clowns that tell you to use false info.

I dream that I can register my own domain name without exposing my personal home address to every pervert on the internet and email address to every spammer in existence.

I didn't put this in the post because it would've made it too long (and who wants to be left out of the Slashdot Omelette?): Everyone is nervous about the proxy ownership thing. When you buy the service, their agreement entitles you to full rights of ownership. There's no way for you to lose control over your domain, unless you do something stupid, like run a spam shop. They've got a great anti-spam policy that should keep out all the nasties trying to use the service. I did my homework before going in on this, and it looks to me like a great way to avoid all the crap (spam, marketing, etc..) that comes with a domain name. I can see that other people (like someone trying to run a family website, or someone trying to shake a stalker) would have an even better use for this. It's a heck of a lot better than using fake WHOIS data, since you can't get your domain taken away.

I didn't put this in the post because it would've made it too long (and who wants to be left out of the Slashdot Omelette?): Everyone is nervous about the proxy ownership thing. When you buy the service, their agreement entitles you to full rights of ownership. There's no way for you to lose control over your domain, unless you do something stupid, like run a spam shop. They've got a great anti-spam policy that should keep out all the nasties trying to use the service. I did my homework before going in on this, and it looks to me like a great way to avoid all the crap (spam, marketing, etc..) that comes with a domain name. I can see that other people (like someone trying to run a family website, or someone trying to shake a stalker) would have an even better use for this. It's a heck of a lot better than using fake WHOIS data, since you can't get your domain taken away.