http://www.smh.com.au/world/country-web-domains-cannot-be-seized-rules-internets-regulatory-body-20140731-zyz1q.html
> Country web domains cannot be seized rules internet's regulatory body > > July 31, 2014 - 3:08PM > > ICANN has ruled that country level domain names are not property. > > Washington: The internet's regulatory authority says country-specific web > domains cannot be seized in court proceedings as it sought to quash an effort > to recover assets in terrorism-related lawsuits. > > The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said that it > filed its argument in response to lawsuits by victims of acts of terrorism > who were seeking to seize the web domains of Iran, Syria and North Korea to > collect on civil damage judgments - potentially shutting down internet access > in those countries. > > The response was to petitions filed by victims of terrorism and family > members of those injured or killed in attacks believed to be sponsored by the > countries, and are seeking to seize the "country code top level domains" such > as .ir for Iran, .sy for Syria and .kp for North Korea. > > ICANN general counsel John Jeffrey said in a statement that these domains > were not assets which could be seized, but "part of a single, global > interoperable internet which ICANN serves to help maintain". > > He said these domains "are not property, and are not 'owned' or 'possessed' > by anyone including ICANN, and therefore cannot be seized in a lawsuit". > > ICANN filed its response on Tuesday in a US federal court after being served > with orders to recover assets from those three countries from plaintiffs who > won lawsuits against Iran, Syria and North Korea. > > If the recovery efforts succeed, they could allow the victims to take over > the domains and potentially shut down all internet access in the three > countries. > > Last month, lawyers for one group of plaintiffs - including American citizens > or families of those killed or injured in attacks on Israel by Hamas, > believed to be sponsored by Tehran - said they had won a judgment against > Iran and were asking for the domains. > > It was the first time terrorism victims had moved to seize the domain names, > IPs and internet licences of terrorism-sponsoring states such as Iran, lawyer > Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said at the time. > > But ICANN's court filings said seizing the domains was not the correct legal > remedy. > > ICANN argued that even if the domains were considered property and could be > handed over, a ruling for the plaintiffs "would destroy whatever value may > exist" in the domains and "would wipe out the hundreds of thousands of > second-level domain names registered therein by various individuals, > businesses and charitable organisations, and could jeopardise the single, > global, interoperable structure the internet". > > Court papers filed on June 24 in a Washington court asked for ICANN to hand > over assets in cases against Iran and Syria after the countries refused to > pay damages in lawsuits. -- Kim Holburn IT Network & Security Consultant T: +61 2 61402408 M: +61 404072753 mailto:[email protected] aim://kimholburn skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
