With Latest Domain Seizures, US Declares Trade War on the World

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

The latest round of domain seizures from the United States are grandiose in their aggression and audacity towards the free world. People in the US may see it as no big deal. To the rest of the world, however, it?s a declaration of trade war.

Authorities in the United States have been seizing domains for some time now, each and every one being a violation of the world?s right to free speech. So far, however, they?ve been using the fact that the domains were rented by a registrar in the United States as pressure point ? going to that renter (registrar) and terminating the contract by force, essentially. Many political opinions and several businesses in non-US jurisdictions have been shut down just because some business or agency in the US didn?t like them. Rights, schmights.

But the latest development is nothing less than an all-out declaration of trade war in an act of quite regular war. Authorities in Maryland decided that a non-US company on non-US soil which had rented its domain from a non-US registrar could still be shut down by the United States ? specifically, bodog.com in Canada, which was a world-leading business employing hundreds of people.

In a short technical summary of how this could happen, the United States screwed with the Internet?s infrastructure to kill a business that had never touched their soil. Like a submarine popping up from nowhere in a location far away from its homeland, saying ?hi!?, killing everything in sight and vanishing again.

I think a lot of people in the United States don?t understand the implications of this, that they think it is business as usual. It is not. It is an act of war, plain and simple: The US is using violence to enforce its will in ? and on ? other jurisdictions. If you want a parallel, there is no difference here whatsoever between the actions of the US here and if Iran had used violence to enforce their Sharia laws in the United States. That may highlight just how atrocious, aggressive and adacious this action and attitude is from the United States.

The United States is asserting its dominance and enforcing its will in trade relations between other, sovereign countries. Like between Germany and France. It is an understatement to say that people take exception to this.

If you?re in the US, would you take exception to Iran enforcing Sharia laws in the United States? Would you feel angry? Enraged, even? Good. That?s a quite reasonable reaction. Maybe you would even be prepared to pick up your rifle in a heartbeat to defend your rights, sovereignty, and way of life? Then you know exactly how the rest of the world feels about this behavior ? no, this act of war ? from the United States.

The solution here isn?t to call out authorities in the USA (or Maryland) out for what they?re doing. They?re following their rulebook and frankly not caring how the US is perceived by the rest of the world; that?s not their department. Rather, the solution is to introduce a new technical term that needs to go into a redesign of DNS.

As techs, architects, and coders, we?ve frequently talked about single points of failure. We?ve been referring to single points of technical failure with this term. With these arrogant power grabs, we need to realize there are two different kinds of single points of failure in any system. From hereon, we also need to eliminate all single points of jurisdictional failure: no authority must have a technical ability to take down a system, regardless of their legal ability to do so. We don?t care if it?s lawful, and done by law enforcement, it?s still evil and still unacceptable. Lawful doesn?t mean good or even acceptable. Again, imagine if Iran had interfered with trade or the exchange of ideas between the US and Canada with the same justification: ?because we can?.

We must get rid of the single points of jurisdictional failure as part of the tech protocols.

The alternative, asking the United States to play nice and their authorities to consider their impact on the rest of the world, is not worth holding your breath for. They commit outright acts of war without a second thought.

(If this domain should suddenly disappear at some point in the future, check falkvinge.eu which I keep as a hot standby. .net domains can no longer be trusted.)

Source: Falkvinge & co. on Infopolicy

[FloatingFatMan]

Or, y'know, don't register domains that are meant to be for other countries, then they can't do a thing.

[n_K]

And I'm sure thousands of canadians are rushing to pillage, rob and desicrate all the states of america as payback for such a horrid crime!

[Glassed Silver]

Or, y'know, don't register domains that are meant to be for other countries, then they can't do a thing.

.com != .us

Glassed Silver:mac

[farmeunit]

Or, y'know, don't register domains that are meant to be for other countries, then they can't do a thing.

Since when is ".com" for any certain country, for starters?

Also, that sucks, because that's who I used to bet on football :(

[simplezz]

Or, y'know, don't register domains that are meant to be for other countries, then they can't do a thing.

You mean like Google or Facebook using a '.uk' domain even though they are american companies? That's what America's doing right now.

We desperately need an alternative DNS system that can't be controlled by corps or tyrannical governments like the US.

[Wakers]

I can't say that I'm shocked that someone believes that .com is reserved for the USA only. I am surprised that they're not from the USA though.

[FloatingFatMan]

Seeing as the US appear to have full control over the .COM domain, I think it's fair enough to say it's their domain, just as .co.uk is for the UK and so on...

[Rudy]

.com != .us

Glassed Silver:mac

+1

The domain name com is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the word commercial,^[1] indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations. However eventually the distinction was lost when .com, .org and .net were opened for unrestricted registration.

Source: wikipedia

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

Even though I do not host or post anything that could remotely considered piracy or porn, I have considered moving all of my domains to something that the US cannot take down.

[TEX4S]

Since the good Ol' US of A isnt the economic powerhouse anymore - we need to drop the big boy on the block persona - and just worry about ourselves. Just sayin

[primexx]

the only reason i'm still keeping my US-based domains registered is to avoid squatters. I'm not using any of them.

[COKid]

Rubbish. You can rationalize any argument to fit your point of view.

Man, a lot of people are sure jealous of the USA. Guess we're pretty bad-ass! :D

[Rudy]

Rubbish. You can rationalize any argument to fit your point of view.

Man, a lot of people are sure jealous of the USA. Guess we're pretty bad-ass! :D

You're kidding right? :rolleyes:

[Glassed Silver]

Seeing as the US appear to have full control over the .COM domain, I think it's fair enough to say it's their domain, just as .co.uk is for the UK and so on...

The ignorance is quite intense with that statement.

edit:/addition:

Oh look there's another one:

Rubbish. You can rationalize any argument to fit your point of view.

Man, a lot of people are sure jealous of the USA. Guess we're pretty bad-ass! :D

Even though I do not host or post anything that could remotely considered piracy or porn, I have considered moving all of my domains to something that the US cannot take down.

I will move my .com to a non-US registrar later this year. (Just as well as my hosting)

No, I don't host anything that is infringing, but I like to have the peace of mind of not being nazi-ruled.

Maybe I'll even make the hosting deal with a company located in one of those countries considered "piracy accepting", not because I want to host it, but I like the comfort zone and that my perception of okay use fits in without dodging.

Now I know my .com is still shaky then, but a .com is something that is the de-facto first address on the net.

Since the good Ol' US of A isnt the economic powerhouse anymore - we need to drop the big boy on the block persona - and just worry about ourselves. Just sayin

The reasoning is wrong, but otherwise I fully agree.

Glassed Silver:mac

[Nihilus]

Rubbish. You can rationalize any argument to fit your point of view.

Man, a lot of people are sure jealous of the USA. Guess we're pretty bad-ass! :D

I see you trollin'