Ready to lose your domains to the state of KY?
 

It is now being openly speculated that KY Governor Steve Beshear may target adult sites selling to residents of the state of KY - if he does pursue this course of action, are any of the billing companies capable of implementing Geo-IP blocking software on a state by state basis? Are any of the hosting companies?

According to this article, Kentucky Judge Thomas Wingate wrote that "The Internet, with all its benefits and advantages to modern-day commerce and life, is still not above the law, whether on an international or municipal level." Following this logic, you could lose a domain not only for offending the laws of another country - like Iran - but also for violating the law of ANY CITY in any state or country! Again, it is just a magazine article - but anyone want to bet how long it is before Kentucky, Utah, or some other place starts trying?

I am seriously hoping that saner heads will prevail as this case rises through the court system - seriously, almost everything on the Internet offends someone - never mind that nasty little thing called the 1st Amendment. But in the meantime, I hope that our billing and hosting companies take note of what is happening in Kentucky right now.

I think it will be VERY hard to get a case against any website to bypass the 1st Amendment. As the judge himself said, it's still not above the law. :winkwink:

This is the double edged sword

on the one hand you can argue that the internet is interstate commerce and as such falls into the jurisdiction of the feds and states cannot regulate it. The back side of that sword is that if your site is found obscene, you are in violation of federal law prohibiting the transport of obscenity. think Max here...he didn't go down for obscenity...all of his counts were for shipping obscenity. Of course the material he shipped had to be found obscene for it to work...that's why the feds venue shop on these cases.

now the flip side is that you let the states control it like this judge wishes to do. Its unlikely his tactic will work since the feds have already claimed jurisdiction via the interstate commerce clause.

I live in Ky and this is some scarey shit. lol
He's also going after online gambling and other such things. That fucker is pretty intense..... :Oh crap

i wouldnt bet on it..

i just had to say that..

Sounds like big bullshit. I mean try to take russian domains that have tons of torrents all sorted out and ready for download. State of Kentucky will not be able to do that. I do like KFC however.. :)

he was successful at taking gambling domains, not for any reason, other than, protecting his gambling buddy interests and the state run gambling.

he is a crook.

New World Order!!!

He's talking out his ass. Who the hell votes for these freaks anyway?

Why doesn't he get the isps in that state to block some domains instead?

So if a person in that state FINDS my site on the web, and purchases a mebership, then I can lose my domain etc.. But the citizen of the state has done nothing wrong????

Is anyone going to go to his house and arrest him??

Seems like they are setting up a nasty thing here.

Also sounds a lot like the bullshit with parents letting their children run unchecked on the internet, and then blaming other people when the kid finds porn, or gives out his phone number or something like that.

It'll never fly.
What's next? All the newspapers get printed with every porn site on the planet's URL, encouraging the people to visit them all so that they can legally take away the domain?
Ha. I'd love to see that.

I am from Ky as well, its a scary thought but I don't think it will go very far at all.

start linking to this site http://www.boycottkentucky.com/

people are still in business, I thought some of the things below where suppose to get rid of this industry?

2257
visa
acacia

Remember the DA from Michigan who ran for Governor on a platform saying that she was going to clean up the Internet? She mentioned Tawnee Stone, a Lightspeed Girl, at the time. Her name was Jennifer Granholm.

Well, she made it into office and guess what - Not a single thing happened.

This is all about elections folks.

what crazy is how people watch the debates as if anything they promise they will do

I remember eliot spitzer had a fund raiser in nyc and he gave a speech against prostitution and how he will focus on getting rid of the problem in ny, after the speech one of the big donors came up and asked him why spend so much money to fight a problem that wont go away and dont hard anyone he said because it breaks up families and spreads hiv.

years later hes the guy who spent more on a hour hooker than most men and used no protection

Online Porn Next on Kentucky List of Seized Domain Targets?

http://www.gambling911.com/gambling-...ts-102108.html

"Now that Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has been successful at seizing some 141 online gambling domain names (at least for the time being), some in the Internet community suspect it won't be long until Beshear and his cronies start going after online porn. After all, attorney Jimmie Johnson, arguing before a circuit court in Kentucky two weeks ago did make mention that there were laws related to fornication within the commonwealth's statutes. Considering Judge Thomas Wingate cited an outdated statute in determining the 141 domains can be seized, one can only imagine what basis Kentucky would have to go after porn websites.

Adultery and fornication are still criminal offences in the commonwealth. "

Where is the list of domains he 'successfully' took?

Here is one ..... check yourself for the others ... was discussed and posted here:

Domain name: highrollerslounge.com

Administrative Contact:
Commonwealth of Kentucky Justice Cabinet
Eric Lycan ()
+1.8592540000
Fax: -
125 Holmes Street
Frankfort, KY 40601
US

Technical Contact:
Commonwealth of Kentucky Justice Cabinet
Eric Lycan ()
+1.8592540000
Fax: -
125 Holmes Street
Frankfort, KY 40601
US

Registrant Contact:
Commonwealth of Kentucky Justice Cabinet
Eric Lycan

125 Holmes Street
Frankfort, KY 40601
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
dns1.name-services.com
dns2.name-services.com
dns3.name-services.com
dns4.name-services.com
dns5.name-services.com

Creation date: 14 Mar 2001 20:54:28
Expiration date: 14 Mar 2010 19:54:28

http://whois.webhosting.info/HighRollersLounge.com

a list is in this court order:

http://www.thedomains.com/wp-content...main-names.pdf

one registrar has already complied and transferred a few.

it should be pointed out that its ultimately up to the registrar as to whether or not they complied with KY's demands to turn over the gaming domains.

1 did i believe without questions...the rest ignored them. the legal issues are complex and they can't just unilaterally demand a registrar in another state do anything without providing documents that have legal weight in that state as they did and expect everyone to comply

you should first protect yourself by going with a registrar that doesn't have a history of blindly giving in to legal threats and letters as some do. you should also realize that your 9.95/year domain isn't worth the headache for most registrars to fight about.

Can a country make a case at a us court to hand over the domains?

bunch of crap

Thanks for the lists...

I dont think sportsbook.com & sportsbetting.com give them up without a fight.

good luck trying to police the internet

Pretty funny. It's time's like these where I just hope that lawyers use experts to explain how the internet works. All people do is request service. Servers serve AFTER checking credentials. If Kentucky or any other entity wants a different system, they should just feel free to invent it. If Kentucky does not want to be served any more as a valid credential, I'm sure the world could comply and kentucky could revert back to the stone ages with no residents.

shame is, it's worked so far on the betting sites

Yeah lots of posts saying "it will never happen"

Read the thread people, he's already seized domains. If he can pull Gambling domains he can EASILY pull adult sites.

Boycott Kentucky indeed.

Just imagine the population of Kentuky with no porn at all?? What would they do???

They would go after that guy to give some explanation!! Well I guess!! heheheh

goats would be at risk ... even more :2 cents:

yes, this is bullshit, BUT I do believe its going to cost a few people a lot of lost revenue while they fight to get their domains back. then you will have a large company spend 10s of thousands of dollars in legal expenses when KY fucks with the wrong company.. then it may end.

The problem here is that a domain registration is basically nothing more than a lease and, as an item of property, is totally passable and transferable via a state court judgement. Moreover, as with trademarks, there is law at both the federal and state levels. Of course, the feds can override the states, if they choose to do so - but they have not as of yet.

Basically, the sites themselves are not being attacked - the actions are against the registrars themselves. And if a "valid" court order is issued, and they choose not to follow it, they are taking risks - for example, being sent to jail for violating an injunction - even if the injunction is later overturned. Hell, the case that gave KY the idea involved a patent owner seizing the domain of an "infringer" - thing is, the patent was later found to be invalid! But you guessed it - the other party still lost their domain, as it was a "valid" order when issued.

Simply put, our sites are viewable in KY via hosts all over the world - and through our billing companies - ccbill, epoch, etc. - we sell to KY residents. More than enough to give them jurisdiction - and if they get a judgment there, all they need to do is ask other states to enforce it - if anyone remembers the "Full Faith and Credit" part of the Constitution. Ultimately, ICAAN is in California anyway - subject to US law - so no domain, anywhere, no matter where the registrar is, is fully safe.

Throw in the fact that KY has one of the most anti adult content set of laws on the books anywhere in the US, and yes, I consider it a serious threat. Even if you eventually "win" such a suit, if your registrar transfers to them and it takes years to get back, good luck building up your traffic again - or trying to get damages for your losses against a sovereign entity acting in a state capacity. The registrars may fight this, but a few have already transferred - and if a final judgment and court order is issued, they may have no choice but to do so. And how many years does the appeal process take?

This is what happens when a global medium like the Internet meets "community standards" thinking - but until the feds do something to clarify this, this line of legal reasoning means open season on any content anyone, anywhere, does not feel "appropriate" for their city, no less. If other courts adopt this reasoning, then even mayors - like, say, of Salt Lake City, Utah - can file suits like this. They will argue that they have the right, under "community standards," to demand that content be filtered out for their jurisdiction - and the sad thing is, they very well might win.