website takedowns by domain extension

[mav]

Are .com domain names able to be taken down by US for 'any old reason'?

Are they able to do this for any other domain extensions other than .com?

Presumably .eu is 'safe' - TPB uses a .eu extension and I'm sure they've unsuccessfully been targeted by the US for takedown... is this right?

Assuming .com can be taken down and .eu cannot, and you use the .com only to forward to the .eu, will the .com be taken down if they USA doesn't 'like' the .eu site being forwarded to? eg if tpb.com was just forwarding to tpb.eu would the USA still want to / be able to take down the .com site?

Anyone know where I can find more detailed info on this?

I have no idea how the law works with the USA (or any other country for that matter) regarding taking down websites, but it seems like they can just do it however they want. I'd really like some more info (links) on this sort of thing. My google skills failed me on it.

[Bitsky]

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/feds-seize-foreign-sites/all/1

[repentance]

Are .com domain names able to be taken down by US for 'any old reason'?

Are they able to do this for any other domain extensions other than .com?

Presumably .eu is 'safe' - TPB uses a .eu extension and I'm sure they've unsuccessfully been targeted by the US for takedown... is this right?

Assuming .com can be taken down and .eu cannot, and you use the .com only to forward to the .eu, will the .com be taken down if they USA doesn't 'like' the .eu site being forwarded to? eg if tpb.com was just forwarding to tpb.eu would the USA still want to / be able to take down the .com site?

Anyone know where I can find more detailed info on this?

I have no idea how the law works with the USA (or any other country for that matter) regarding taking down websites, but it seems like they can just do it however they want. I'd really like some more info (links) on this sort of thing. My google skills failed me on it.

.com, .net, and .org are the common seizures.  Where the sites are located is irrelevent.  There are a number of different laws they use, from IP laws to racketeering laws.

[Bitsky]

"Operation In Our Sites"

dajaz1.com
Seized for 13 months, later returned to its owner due to a lack of evidence without any excuse, simply based on accusations of the RIAA.

rojadirecta.com
Seized even though it's located in Spain and spanish courts ruled it's completely legal.

[Bitcoin Oz]

I for one cant wait till .bit can be browsed to no differently than .com

Then fuck the US in the ass and its retarded controls.

[rate5]

I am almost positive any domain extension can be seized, however the process for doing so differs from country to country.  It would be interesting to find out what extensions are the most difficult to seize.  The Pirate Bay changed their extension from .ORG to .SE perhaps to make it more difficult for US Customs to seize.

If you need a domain that can not be taken down .ONION (TOR) and .BIT (Namecoin) can't be seized but require the user to install additional software to view the website.

[theymos]

The ultimate authority of the domain name system is the US Department of Commerce (which currently contracts this function out to ICANN), so any domain can theoretically be taken down by the US government. ICANN hasn't yet been targeted directly, though -- the US has been going through Verisign, which runs .com and .net.

Country-code TLDs are probably safer than generic TLDs because other countries would be irritated if the US tried taking down domains registered under their ccTLDs. I don't know if .eu is the best, though, since the EU has pretty good relations with the US. You'd ideally want:
- A large country that won't be easily intimidated.
- A country without strong ties to the US.
- A country that runs its own registrar. For-profit registrars can be easily intimidated.

What we really need is an alternative to ICANN's DNS. (Namecoin is far from optimal, unfortunately.)

[Bitsky]

- A large country that won't be easily intimidated.
- A country without strong ties to the US.
- A country that runs its own registrar. For-profit registrars can be easily intimidated.

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