My weekly technology law column focuses on the growth of Internet censorship and the accompanying pressure on the business community to do something about it… China’s censorship system may be the most extensive, but it is not alone. The University of Toronto’s OpenNet Initiative, a world leader in tracking state-sponsored Internet censorship, recently co-published Access Denied, a book that highlights its pervasive growth. The book notes that some countries control all public Internet services, thereby creating an easy pipeline to implementing filtering technologies. Countries such as Syria have sought to chill access to the Internet by requiring cybercafe owners to record the names and identification cards of clients… More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

I’ve now read Soloway’s plea agreement. Despite some claims from his lawyers that it’s some kind of victory that he only pleaded to three of the 40 charges, with the rest being dismissed, it’s clear from the agreement that he indeed did just about everything that the government charged. The government as is usual had several similar charges in each category. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

Clearly whatever it is that Dutch politician Geert Wilders wants to talk about in his film is going to be the end of the internet. The news that Network Solutions decided to pre-empt his use of a domain name registered through them for the purpose of promoting his film need not be re-hashed here. However, before bemoaning yet another registrar freely deciding, as is its right, with whom it chooses to do business, it’s important to look at the big picture. No, it is not “censorship” for Network Solutions to decide how it wants its services to be used… But, perhaps we might understand Network Solutions policy more clearly by looking at domain names registered through NSI… More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

When it comes to the First Amendment, people get pretty animated. But as you correctly point out, NSI and other registrars are in a unique market where the shear volume of domain name registrations makes it very difficult to apply policies with any consistency. And at some point, black and white becomes a very grey area where the policies getting harder to apply.

Companies such as NSI and other registrars are and should be able to create their own policies concerning the use of their services. The market will provide alternatives base don demand. T

here are certainly registrars out there who could care less what content goes on your web site. As long as there are alternatives, a knee-jerk cry of censorship will remain unfounded. Reply

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

[quote]Companies such as NSI and other registrars are and should be able to create their own policies concerning the use of their services.[/quote]

By and large, that is correct.

However, what NSI is doing in the case of eelam.com is quite literally illegal.

The LTTE is on the OFAC SDN list http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/sdn/sdnlist.txt, and the identified registrant, “TCC” in Paris, France is the Tamil Coordinating Committee:

http://www.priu.gov.lk/news_update/features/20001004British_charities_fund_terrorists%20.htm

[i]The US State Departmentâs Global Terrorism report lists the World Tamil Association (WTA), World Tamil Movement (WTM), the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils(FACT) and the Ellalan Force as known terrorist fronts of the LTTE. One of the constituent organisations of the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils(FACT) is the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada. (TESOC).

The Canadian branch of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation(TRO) operates out of the same offices as the Tamil Eelam Society of Canada (TESOC), 861 Broadview Avenue, Toronto M4K 2P9, Ontario and is headed by Mr E Gunananthan a well known LTTE activist in Canada.

In Sweden and several other European countries, the front name of the LTTE is TCC, (Tamil Co-ordinating Committee.) The Swedish office of the LTTE is located at Glomminge Grand-25, 3rd Floor, 16362 Spanga, Sweden. The British Charity TRO has its office at Glomminge Grand - 29, 1st Floor, 16362 Spanga, Sweden.[/i]

It is the OFAC regulations which caused Enom to recently de-activate a number of domain names utilized by a Spanish travel agency in connection with travel to Cuba.

GoDaddy provides registration services for the following:

AL SUNUT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY (a.k.a. ALSUNUT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY),
No. 1 Block 5 East, Khartoum 2, P.O. Box 1840, Khartoum, Sudan;
Website www.alsunut.com (Sudan);

…in violation of the Sudan sanctions program, and Enom remains the registrar of record of another Sudanese state organ:

GIAD AUTOMOTIVE COMPANY (a.k.a. GIAD AUTOMOTIVE AND TRUCK; a.k.a.
GIAD AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY COMPANY LIMITED; a.k.a. GIAD CARS & HEAVY
TRUCKS COMPANY), Gazera State (40 km distance from Khartoum), P.O.
Box 444/13600, Khartoum 1111, Sudan; Website
www.giadmotors.com/giad_auto.html [SUDAN]

These Sudanese organizations made their way onto the OFAC list due to their participation in genocide which, again, is not likely to find its way onto the list of ICANN priorities anytime soon.

You see, there are people using the internet to infringe trademarks. What’s a few dead villages, more or less, in Africa? Reply

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

According to a recent security report, the number of phishing attacks on financial services customers has increased dramatically this year, with fraudsters focusing on three banks whose customers they have judged to be particularly vulnerable. Just as phishing seemed to have slipped off the consumer radar, online fraudsters have leapt on the chance to capitalize on this false sense of security and have increased their phishing activity… More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

It appears that many Japanese advertisers are no longer resorting to URL’s as their primary means of promoting websites. While recently visiting Japan, blogger Cabel Sasser has made an interesting observation about this trend: “Within minutes of riding on the first trains in Japan, I notice a significant change in advertising, from train to television. The trend? No more printed URL’s. The replacement? Search boxes! With recommended search terms! …getting people to a specific page in a big site is difficult (who’s going to write down anything after the first slash?)… But, I ask you: could this be done in the USA?” More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

In the past week, Comcast filed an answer, denying all of E360’s charges, and attached to it a motion to file a most impressive counterclaim. The court granted the motion on Monday so the counterclaim has been filed. At about the same time, E360 filed its response to Comcast’s previous motion to dismiss the suit due to its utter lack of legal merit. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has received 2,156 complaints alleging “abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet” in 2007, up 18 percent from 2006 and 48 percent more than the filings lodged in 2005. Most complaints came from the pharmaceutical, banking, telecommunications, retail and entertainment sectors. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has received 2,156 complaints alleging “abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet” in 2007, up 18 percent from 2006 and 48 percent more than the filings lodged in 2005. Most complaints came from the pharmaceutical, banking, telecommunications, retail and entertainment sectors. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back