[kictanet] Domain seizures for copyright infringement likely to go global

[alice at apc.org]

Domain seizures for copyright infringement likely to go global
Law enforement officials urge ICANN to take steps to ensure compliance
with international agreements

By Rebecca Wanjiku | Computerworld Kenya | 14 March 12

Efforts to take down websites for copyright infringement are likely to
move beyond U.S.-based registries, with ICANN (the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers) promising to more closely cooperate with
global law enforcement agencies and governments.

Cooperation to combat copyright infringement has been a hot topic this
week at ICANN's international meeting in San José, Costa Rica. There are
22 registries and over 700 registrars accredited by ICANN. Registries
contain domain names registered in a top-level domain, while registrars
sell domains.

Any domain under a U.S. registry must follow U.S. laws regardless of where
the servers are, according to agreements currently in place. The seizure
of domains deemed to infringe on copyrights was first carried out by
Verisign, the operator of the registry for .net and .com.

During an open session with the Government Advisory Committee (GAC), the
ICANN board confirmed that it will enforce its contracts with registrars
more effectively in order to meet expectations from governments and law
enforcement authorities. The expectations were contained in a 12- page
document submitted by the GAC, which also includes representatives from
national law enforcement agencies as well as Interpol.

"There has been some agreement on 11 of the 12 recommendations made by law
enforcement authorities to the registrar accreditation agreement; we will
work to ensure agreement meets expectations and give registrars the
incentive to accept recommendations right away," said Kurt Pritz, ICANN
senior vice president in charge of stakeholder relations.

Representatives from governments, Interpol and the U.S. Federal Bureau of
Investigation said they felt that ICANN's failure to enforce its own
contractual agreements was damaging to Domain Name System users as well as
end users.

Some of the 12 recommendations relating to registrar agreements was
inclusion of a clause that holds registrars responsible through negligence
for registering domains engaging in criminal activity. Another
recommendation is for registrars to maintain detailed information of
domain buyers, including their source IP addresses and transaction
information, and validate the contact information given by domain buyers.

Law enforcement officials have also urged ICANN to review registrars'
compliance record with enforcement agreements prior to renewing their
contracts.

"Complaints on compliance started coming in the last six to nine months, a
team of 12 is now in place and will improve the quality of service," said
Rod Beckstrom, ICANN CEO and president.