US Asserts Super-Jurisdiction Over Dot-Com, Dot-Net, and Dot-Org Domains

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist reports that last week State of Maryland prosecutors were able to obtain a warrant ordering Verisign, the company that manages the dot-com domain name registry, to redirect the website to a warning page advising that it has been seized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The message from the case is clear: all dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org domain names are subject to U.S. jurisdiction regardless of where they operate or where they were registered. This grants the U.S. a form of 'super-jurisdiction' over Internet activities, since most other countries are limited to jurisdiction with a real and substantial connection."

Comments

*.is ?

[J'raxis]

This would be an excellent opportunity for Iceland, which has been working on become a haven for free speech, to drum up a few million dollars worth of business for their ccTLD.

Re:Well shit

[philip.paradis]

You should be aware that co is the ccTLD for Colombia, a country the United States enjoys a close relationship with. Well, it's a cozy relationship with one of their governments, anyhow. They've got the official government, the government with half the guns, and the government with most of the drugs. In any event, it's the official government that would be the issue if push came to shove over a domain.

Also, GoDaddy pimping anything is frequently a good reason to avoid whatever they're pimping.

Re:Switch away from .com?

[houstonbofh]

No, because most companies don't care to do illegal activity which will cause legal action to allow for this action against their domain. And if they don't fit into that category, chances are they are already on a different domain.

This was a Canadian website doing something legal in Canada. We have turned a corner where obeying the law is no longer protection from arrest or confiscation.

If you are the least big worried about it then you need to be working for legal reform rather than the stupidity which is this article. As if you have a problem with this, you have a problem with US law. Period. So please, let's stop having the dipshit of the week post more stupidity about a symptom that largely only creates problems for criminals. And if you disagree, then go fix the legal system rather than boo-hoo about how a legal system is doing perfectly legal things with the entities its largely created, nurtured, owns, and controls - as in, is clearly within its jurisdiction.

It also creates a problem for forums, blogs, independent companies hosted at a provider that also hosts forums and blogs, file storage providers, cloud services... But you are absolutely correct in that we do need to fix the laws, and the people that believe in global projection of law to independent nations. And I say this from the US.

Re:I doubt this is good even for short-term object

[GameboyRMH]

TPB has also switched to an .se domain, that they forward to by default. But with TPB now being DHT-only and magnet-link-only, and even more easily mirrored, it would be stupid and pointless to take it down.

Re:How is this news?

[AK Marc]

There was never any confusion on this point. The US asserted this was the case. The rest of the world asserted this was the case. The US made some hints they "wouldn't" but never backed down from the assertion that they *could*.

Re:I doubt this is good even for short-term object

[Ihmhi]

The Oatmeal describes this phenomenon perfectly.