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No, You Can't Seize Country TLDs, US Court Rules
itwbennett writes A U.S. court has quashed an attempt to seize Iran's, Syria's and North Korea's domains as part of a lawsuit against those countries' governments. The plaintiffs in the case wanted to seize the domains after they successfully sued Iran, Syria and North Korea as state sponsors of terrorism. But the court found the domains have the nature of a contractual right, and ruled that rights arising under a contract cannot be seized as part of a judgment.
But what does Bennett Haselton think about this? I can't form an opinion until he weights in on this issue. He's a frequent contributor.
Damn, I was hoping to get .com's and .gov's seized due to US state sponsored terrorism (I mean surveillance)
Does Bennett Haselton agree with this? I can't tell if I should agree with you until he weighs in. He's a frequent contributor.
Seriously, what do they think they can gain from not letting a government control it's own name?
It's not like Iran is going to stop existing on the Internet even if they did take them. Peering through less hostile neighbors wouldn't just stop. The only leverage this would really give the US government is the ability to set up "kimjongisapoopyhead.nk".
Who are the plantiffs? I hate having to research every damn article on this site because of lazy contributors.
Awarding the domains would have set a precedent and opened a whole can of worms (opportunity?) in the porn industry.
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
Basically it works like this.
1) Amy has a contract to wash Bob's car for $100 month.
2) Carl sues Bob for murdering his dog.
3) The courts can not give Carl a contract with Amy. The courts can only award Carl with property and money taken from Bob.
Basically the courts can't force Amy to work with Carl. They can't force ICANN to work with the plantiffs.
DDoS those countries from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
One reason (IIRC, it was the same reason that SOPA/PIPA was shelved) is that China and Russia made it quite clear that blocking their domains is the same thing as blockading physical ship ports or denying access to airspace -- it would be considered an act of war and treated as such.
Same thing on this level. Taking the TLDs from the countries would further advance the cause of the UN to seize ICANN.
You think the US is bad... wait until the UN starts running things, with countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia at the helm. Got a pic of your friend eating a BLT? Your entire domain and IP range gets pulled.
North Korea and Syria sponsor terrorism? Never heard of that accusation, who do they support? And who was suing them? This could only be done by someone who was damaged, right?
Who gave North Korea a computer? Why would they need a TLD?
Then why do the courts make it possible to seize domains of individuals and private corporations?
The only nation in human history to fight a nuclear war and win!
Ignoring entirely why the us feels it's courts have jurisdiction at all, any other outcome would have resulted in these countries and their friendly neighbours legislating TLD definitions.
I think it's the other way round. If they cut off your arms, you can run away, but once you fall down, it's going to be a bitch to get back up again.
It's just a flesh wound!
If my comment didn't sound as good in your head as it did in mine, then I guess we all know who's to blame
No government would want to trust their TLD (on which relies the entire country's infrastructure and economy) to a foreign country that interferes with it. Once that can of worms is opened, you'd probably end up with each country hosting their own alternative root and mandating their ISPs either default to using it or being able to fail over to it quickly when necessary.
Fidel, is that you?
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
You can always put in blocks for their IP address ranges as well as reverse lookups denying them communication.
The disadvantage is that you also will filter out possible channels for the opposition in those countries.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
And Mauritius lost its gov.mu! Now they are using govmu.org!
Basically it works like this. 1) Amy has a contract to wash Bob's car for $100 month. 2) Carl sues Bob for murdering his dog. 3) The courts can not give Carl a contract with Amy. The courts can only award Carl with property and money taken from Bob. Basically the courts can't force Amy to work with Carl. They can't force ICANN to work with the plantiffs.
A very thought-provoking post. I had trouble understanding why Bob would pay $100 a month to have his car washed, until I realized that washing his car is a euphemism. Upon realizing that, your argument became much more persuasive.