Private .US Registrations Disallowed by NTIA

jnetsurfer writes "Apparently, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ("NTIA") has decided that domains under the TLD .US have no right to privacy. New domain names ending in .US will not be able to be registered as "private" and current owners of .US names will be forced to reveal their contact information starting "no later than January 26, 2006". This means that you can't run an annonymous website with a .US TLD. If you don't like this, feel free to sign the petition."

Comments

Re:Use a third-party to register your domain

[tuxette]

Aw crap, you beat me to saying "use (trusted) third parties to register your domain name." *sigh*

So while we're on the topic of third parties, some questions:

- has there been any discussion surrounding banning the use of these third parties?

- what are the laws/rules/liabilities/etc. regarding the relationship between third parties and the government, and third parties and their customers, in dealing with issues between the government and a customer?

.US Registry Censors Domains Too ...

[Ron Bennett]

The .US Registry has disabled and locked numerous .US domains containing "dirty" words alone, regardless of whether the domains were actually used or not.

So much for freedom of speech and expression in .US - but then America is full of contradictions :(

I've owned FuckCensorship.COM / .ORG / .NET for years and never had any problems ... yet, my FuckCensorship.US domain was only active for a short time and then disabled/locked.

In short, .US domains are best avoided for anything critical ... not solely because of the censorship issues, but rather more so because the .US Registry changes polices willy nilly with little regard to registrants.

Domain Name FUCKCENSORSHIP.US
Domain ID D1877066-US
Sponsoring Registrar INTERCOSMOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. D.B.A. DIRECTNIC.COM
Domain Status serverDeleteProhibited
Domain Status serverTransferProhibited
Domain Status serverUpdateProhibited
Registrant ID IMG-146583
Registrant Name Ron Bennett
Registrant Organization Ron Bennett
Registrant Address1 PO BOX 6532
Registrant City Wyomissing
Registrant State/Province PA
Registrant Postal Code 19610-0532
Registrant Country United States
Registrant Country Code US
Registrant Phone Number +1.6107776566
Registrant Email bennett@wyomissing.com
Registrant Application Purpose P1
Registrant Nexus Category C11
Administrative Contact ID IMG-146583
Administrative Contact Name Ron Bennett
Administrative Contact Organization Ron Bennett
Administrative Contact Address1 PO BOX 6532
Administrative Contact City Wyomissing
Administrative Contact State/Province PA
Administrative Contact Postal Code 19610-0532
Administrative Contact Country United States
Administrative Contact Country Code US
Administrative Contact Phone Number +1.6107776566
Administrative Contact Email bennett@wyomissing.com
Administrative Contact Application Purpose P1
Administrative Contact Nexus Category C11
Billing Contact ID IMG-146583
Billing Contact Name Ron Bennett
Billing Contact Organization Ron Bennett
Billing Contact Address1 PO BOX 6532
Billing Contact City Wyomissing
Billing Contact State/Province PA
Billing Contact Postal Code 19610-0532
Billing Contact Country United States
Billing Contact Country Code US
Billing Contact Phone Number +1.6107776566
Billing Contact Email bennett@wyomissing.com
Billing Contact Application Purpose P1
Billing Contact Nexus Category C11
Technical Contact ID IMG-146583
Technical Contact Name Ron Bennett
Technical Contact Organization Ron Bennett
Technical Contact Address1 PO BOX 6532
Technical Contact City Wyomissing
Technical Contact State/Province PA
Technical Contact Postal Code 19610-0532
Technical Contact Country United States
Technical Contact Country Code US
Technical Contact Phone Number +1.6107776566
Technical Contact Email bennett@wyomissing.com
Technical Contact Application Purpose P1
Technical Contact Nexus Category C11
Name Server INVALIDNS1.NEUSTAR.COM
Name Server INVALIDNS2.NEUSTAR.COM
Created by Registrar INTERCOSMOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. D.B.A. DIRECTNIC.COM
Last Updated by Registrar BATCHCSR
Domain Registration Date Wed Apr 24 17:52:47 GMT+00:00 2002
Domain Expiration Date Sat Apr 23 23:59:59 GMT+00:00 2005
Domain Last Updated Date Sat Apr 24 04:35:46 GMT+00:00 2004

Whois database was last updated on: Thu Mar 31 13:14:23 GMT 2005

Re:Godaddy

[Ron Bennett]

GoDaddy's founder makes some good points, but the primary reason for GoDaddy bulk mailing that is they stand to lose money because they will no longer be able to offer "private" (proxy) .US registrations.

GoDaddy's practices leave something to be desired - anyone running anything even remotely controversal, especially if adult/porn related, does best to avoid GoDaddy when registering the hosting domain(s).

Ron Bennett

Re:I'd sign the petition...

[Maestro4k]

Likewise, an anonymously registered and maintained TLD is useful for only a few things. Most of them wrong. I.e. you can knowingly publish libelous material as long as nobody knows it was put out by you.

• Don't get spammed much do you? I recently registered two domains, both will have a quasi-business site on them, both very valid public sites. I registered them privately on purpose, I don't want any more spam because of domain registrations.

• Back in the mid 1990s I registered two domains. Spam wasn't the problem it is now at the time, and I used a permanent E-mail address. A few years after that I started getting spammed constantly, mostly trying to push other domains or other domain registars at me, along with the weak phishing-type scams trying to make me think my domain had expired. Since then, even though the domains no longer exist, the amount of spam at that address has risen drastically. It gets hundreds a day now, and most of them can be attributed back to registering two domain names. Personally I think you'd be nuts to register a domain either non-privately or with any real contact info nowadays. Spammers will still mine the whois databases, they don't care about the rules prohibiting it.

  There are other good reasons as well. What about people who have a stalker? Rape victims or other violent crime victims? Identity theft victims, or those wanting to avoid becoming one? Political activists who don't want bricks thrown through their windows by overzealous people of opposite beliefs?

  There are many VERY good reasons to want a private registration, very few of which are "wrong". Private registration also does not mean you're free from the law. My real contact info is in escrow with the proxy service, if they get a subpoena they will release my real info to the police. I'm still bound by the law, I just am no longer bound by the spammers.

Re:I'd sign the petition...

[grub]

Depending on your registrar, you can have them act as a proxy for contact. ie:

whois grub.net

and you'll see all my stuff goes through NetSol. It costs a few dollars (peanuts), my email isn't harvested that way and best of all: no one knows I live in Winnipeg^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H

If ICANN, UCAN2!

[http101]

The ironic part is, anyone saying this is going to stop spammers from sending spam, IS WRONG. Spam is mostly send from over-seas servers and enters the US from, you guessed it, a big fat internet pipeline. Sure, the spammers might get a phone call or two, but the spamming won't stop.

As for providing false information, an article on the CircleID website quotes, "It is now illegal to provide false information when registering a domain name." It goes on to say, "Last year, there was a brief attempt to make registrars responsible for the accuracy of the Whois database. Fortunately, that legislation failed. What did become law was a new, stiff penalty (7 years) for providing false WHOIS information. While this looming jail time might have some sway over US-based crooks, it will do little to get accurate information from those who live overseas." As I mentioned before, this is merely a flesh-wound in stopping the spam-war.

My greatest fear is having someone show up on my doorstep with intent to harm my family, property, or myself because that person wants my domain name. And as it seems with almost every law in America, it takes spilled blood to have those laws abolished or less, modified in some feeble attempt to make a slight few of us happy.

What needs to happen is the placement of an organization who tracks the "licensing" of domains and their registrants. If I were to require contact with a site operator, I would first have to call them to obtain contact information, however, that information would be limited to a mailing address, NOT a home address, name, phone number, and email.

Registration would require a name and a mailing address (NOT a home address). If a mailing address is not possible, then a phone number and email may be relinquished by the domain host. The registrant has the option of unlisting this information completely, however, contact/complaints must be made through the organization. A failure to comply with requests from the organization within 30 calendar days would ultimately mean a "freeze" on the domain. After 90 days (60 days from the beginning of a domain freeze), the domain is wiped off the face of the internet. This should light a fire under anyone's ass.

This may not sound like the most 'perfect' plan, though is a lot better than what's in place now. And you may be thinking, "we already have an organization that does that," but no, ICANN functions like a cat, lying around all day, looking pretty, propping up a leg in the corner of the room to lick itself and essentially, just look pretty. We need an organization that isn't afraid of grabbing some sack to make things happen.