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.UK Registrar Offers To Let Police Close Domain

Posted by samzenpus on from the shut-it-down dept.

judgecorp writes "The .uk registrar, Nominet, has proposed rules that would give the police powers to demand Internet domains be shut down without a court order, in certain circumstances. The powers were requested by the Serious and Organized Crime Agency and have aroused concern that legitimate sites might be closed on suspicion of wrongdoing. Nominet's suggested implementation is online for public consultation."

2 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. "Certain circumstances"? by Lunaritian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The policy would cover cases in which a site is involved in crimes covered under the Serious Crimes Act 2007, including fraud, prostitution, money laundering, blackmail and copyright infringement."

    Always copyright infringement. Is it really a "serious crime"? And will this rule really have any effect?

    1. Re:"Certain circumstances"? by 1s44c · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "The policy would cover cases in which a site is involved in crimes covered under the Serious Crimes Act 2007, including fraud, prostitution, money laundering, blackmail and copyright infringement."

      Always copyright infringement. Is it really a "serious crime"? And will this rule really have any effect?

      The thing is it's not 'sites involved in', It's 'sites accused of being involved in'. This rule is wide open for abuse, they can shutdown anything with it.

      Besides it's a totally stupid rule as the current DNS setup lets anyone anywhere register anything anywhere else. Not to mention you don't even need a domain name to host a website.

      This is stupid political powermongering types giving excessive power to corrupt police. Again.