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Dirty Domains

Posted by michael on from the court-going-into-the-porno-business? dept.

EraseMe writes "Sucks. A quick whois shows that a whole slew of offensive domain names are owned by the Central District of California US District Court. Is this an attempt at using our tax dollars towards lucrative purchases, or simply a censorship of our global freedom?" The second, but not in the way that you think. The court holds the domains because there's an ongoing suit which is challenging Network Solutions' refusal to register domains based on the Pacifica "seven dirty words" case. It was covered a few months ago in various news outlets.

Even more interesting is NSI's practice of refusing registrations to some registrants but granting them to others. Various registrants tried to register "nigger.com", and were refused, before NSI permitted the NAACP to register it (although why the NAACP wants to be associated with nigger.com is hard for me to grasp). Why do some organizations get special treatment for registering domain names?

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Offensive Domains by Chops-Frozen-Water · · Score: 3

    Well, I can see why NSI wouldn't allow some of them, but there's really no policy that can be applied globally, given language variance, even American English vs British English vs Australian English. NSI's allowed the NAACP to register 'nigger.com' but turned down others. Where's the line drawn? godhatesfags.com was allowed, would godhatesblacks.com be? Or would they only allow (e.g.) the NAACP to register it to present their side of it?
    --

    --
    The Future: Some assembly required; batteries not included.
  2. Everything is Censorship! The sky is falling! by richnut · · Score: 3

    Take a step back people.

    Not everything is about curtailing your personal freedom.

    We do live in a civilized (so I'm told) society with rules and values and norms. Not everyone is supposed to be allowed to run around and say whatever they want about anyone. Just becasue I can say "Eat shit and die" does not mean I'm supposed to. Just because there can be hard core porn on the net doesn't mean there should be. Just because the net can be used for just about anything does not mean that it should. We are giving access to our kids and third world countries here. Not everyone has the right to be anonymous.

    I'm not saying to start stomping all over the 1st ammendment, just to think about what you people are talking about. Not being able to register donkeysack.com or whatever is NOT the same as being shot because you say you hate the government. That's real censorship. There's real people in this world being opressed for real beliefs and people on /. are all bitching and moaning about not being able to register a domain name with the big bad man.

    -Rich

    1. Re:Everything is Censorship! The sky is falling! by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 3
      My question is what do Nazi's have to do with domain names?
      Domain names are a form of communication - they can be a statement in and of themselves, and they act as an index to the site's content. Do you not think that the Nazis would have banned "stopkillingjews.org"?
      lets talk about TV or Radio. These are both censored mediums, yet somehow we still manage to have a free society.
      You contradict yourself.

      We (USAmericans) do not in fact live in a free society. Censorship is alive and well, as you point out; certain types of political speech are branded "conspiracy" and criminalized; many states have laws against consensual sex acts; there are even laws that laws that tell you what chemicals you can put into your own body. And it's a sad commentary on the human condition that all this still leaves us freer than most other nations.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
  3. NSI Doesn't allow "Dirty Words"... go elsewhere... by Dredd13 · · Score: 3
    OK, summation: NSI now has competition. If you don't like their policies, and many don't, go elsewhere.

    COREnic will happily register whatever domain-name you put in front of them.

    For example:
    ~ > whois fuckme.com@whois.corenic.net
    [whois.corenic.net]
    berkens michael (template COCO-395) CORE-78
    po box 4756
    seminole, fl 33775 US

    Domain Name: fuckme.com
    Status: production
    ...

    The domains are in the root-servers just like any other .com/.net/.org/etc. There was an article on this several months ago, mocking how the whole NSI case was useless because the competitive registries will allowing exactly what NSI was forbidding.