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VeriSign Wants Ability To Suspend Domains Without Court Order
GeorgeK writes "VeriSign, the monopoly registry operator for .com/.net domain names, has submitted a proposal to ICANN (PDF) describing an 'Anti-Abuse' policy. If allowed to proceed with such a policy, they would become judge, jury and executioner, with the ability to suspend or even cancel alleged 'abusive' domain names without due process for registrants. The proposal even recognizes that legitimate domain names may be taken down improperly, and offers a 'protest' procedure. However, VeriSign does not appear to offer any ability to protest an accusation of abuse before the suspension or cancellation. They intend to 'shoot first and ask questions later.'"
...this presents no opportunities for abuse.
Governments and corporations keep leapfrogging each other as the biggest threat to the Internet. How are we supposed to know which threat to focus on dammit!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I'm sure they will offer a service where your domain is "Pre-Verified" and not subject to abuse takedowns... For $1,000 per year, of course.
The ______ Agenda
Doesn't matter if the original owner doesn't want to sell, for a price it can be made available.
Many of these abusive domains are very fleeting and transient designed to live for just a few hours. If you want due process, it has to come before the registration. So domain name registration would then follow guidelines similar to Trade Mark and other corporation registration rules. It would slow down the registration process a lot and impact the fees Verisign is currently collecting. The domain name abuse is getting to be very bad, and it could trigger legislation. Legislation by the congress critters who imagine internet to be a series of tubes would put onerous burdens in the registrants and the registrars. So it is heading it off at the pass.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
I am asking for such powers. Just because I asked for it, does not mean I will get it.
That should provide robust protections for, oh, anybody who can afford a protracted legal battle... Shouldn't be a problem.
A DDoS or a petty "doxing" would be boring; but my schadenfreude lobe would be pulsating with happiness if their private signing key(s) were to make their merry way into the world.... Can you imagine the mayhem?
They intend to 'shoot first and ask questions later.'
This is helpful for potential malware/virus/etc sites - take it down NOW and address afterwards. As long as the ones taking the deactivation move witness it themselves, it's doable.
The problem comes with reports. Let's say you get 100 reports of a domain being a nasty one in a 5-minute period of time. You just *wham-bam* take that domain down without looking at it and you could have just been the worst link in a staged act chain.
I'm not trying to be an ass, but I'm posting what I witness daily: Everyone wants to save money, including big companies. If VeriSign were to have this ability (along with other TLD registrars), then they will likely want to automate everything they can. See paragraph 2 above.
Add in the fact that they'll probably start slipping forced arbitration clauses in their contracts like a lot of companies are doing and I can't see this going wrong at all
You can be a monopoly. It's not illegal.
It's illegal to abuse monopoly status, though.
Paranoia is a Survival Trait!
Thanks for accepting the article. ICANN is still reviewing the proposal. If folks share my concerns, please do send them your comments by emailing registryservice@icann.org (from the top of ICANN's Registry Services Evaluation Process page). You can view comments by others here. EasyDNS has submitted their concerns too.
At a minimum, they should open up a formal 30 day public comment period that is widely advertised, in order that domain name registrants can be heard.
... in countries where the government-licensed utilities already have this power.
If TLD management were split among countries, so that Verisign handled .com and .net for US-based companies and foreign subsidiaries or foreign registrars handled it in foreign countries, then this kind of power might make sense for some foreign subsidiaries of Verisign or for some foreign registrars.
As for companies based the United States who use a domain registrar in the United States, yanking a domain name without a court order insults the Constitution.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I propose that they should not only implement this idea, but to track down the offenders and subject them to a gratuitous full body cavity search. You should be glad they won't need or require your consent, as this will be for your own good.
The US government WANTS this. They can then do takedowns without even the pro forma court-orders they get now; just a word to Verisign and the domain is gone, no questions asked.