I just read recently that a U.S. state has started seizing certain domain names. I couldn’t believe it at first, but…it’s true.

Took me a while to find a link to a news article, but I finally got it and sharing it here.

As the story goes:

Beshear said his administration sought and was granted an order by a Franklin County Circuit judge last week that transferred the domain names of 141 illegal Internet gambling sites to the Commonwealth of Kentucky in an effort to stop illegal and unregulated online gaming.

You can read more about it via this link.

Among them were some popular sites like PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, BodogLife.com, GoldenPalace.com, Bet21.com, DoylesRoom.com and IndianCasino.com (owned by domainer Rick Schwartz). All of them were supposed to be immediately transferred to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

A copy of the court order can be found in domain blog TheDomains. Quite a lively discussion there, which I took part of as well.

One common complaint I’ve seen there is that none of the registrants were notified. I read a copy of the order and found two key words which might explain it: in rem.

According to Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_rem

In rem is Latin for “in a thing”. In a lawsuit, an action in rem is directed towards some specific piece of property, rather than being a claim for, say, monetary compensation against a person (which is an in personam or personal action).

If I understood it right (even though I’m not a lawyer), Kentucky filed and secured an in rem order which they didn’t have to notify anyone else other than the registrars. Essentially that prevented anyone from challenging it.

I personally find that potentially sneaky. But…I guess U.S. law allows that.

Subsequently I found in TheDomains that Kentucky has scheduled a hearing for registrants affected by this. At least one won’t show up…because he’s dead.

This is bothersome, but personally unsurprising. The registrar I worked with can accomodate certain court orders, though it can also ignore others if they’re especially issued in another country.

Also in TheDomains, an executive from domain registrar Fabulous explained how they handle court orders. Their “thought process” is practically the same as how we’d handle such.

Generally speaking, registrars are obligated to obey court orders from those issued within their jurisdiction. Those outside them are pretty much judgment calls.

To give you an idea whether they’d accomodate them or not, some note if the court is within the registrant’s jurisdiction. So here are some scenarios:

Scenario 1 – you the registrant are based in Montana, and the registrar’s in Virginia. If someone gets a court order in Virginia, the registrar must follow it.

Scenario 2 – similar to scenario 1, but the order was issued by a court in Montana. The registrar might obey it, but they might notify its registrant first depending on their agreement prior to taking action on the order.

Scenario 3 – again similar to scenario 1, but the order was issued by a court in Timbuktu. Well, the registrar can very well toss the order in a trash bin if they feel like it.

Depending on what side of the dispute you’re on, this sort of event can work for or against you. If you’re a trademark holder in the U.S., the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) can allow you to similarly file an in rem action towards the domain name.

If you’re the registrant, though, most likely you won’t appreciate this sort of thing without being a chance to either work it out or even dispute it. That’s what domainer Rick Schwartz (as I mentioned above) is intending to do, but that’s because he can afford it.

So…what can we maybe learn from this?

For one thing, it’s an unfortunate reality. Your domain name can be seized from you, especially if someone’s legally disputing your rights to it.

For another, it can place a sometimes unnecessary yet sometimes unavoidable burden to protect it further from legal disputes. Then again, people dispute other people’s rights every other day for one reason or another, but that’s what lawyers and courts are for.

This event is practically creating the desire to transfer your domain name to a non-U.S.-based registrar. Depending on certain situations, doing that might be a good idea.

OTOH, I’m not able to recommend any non-U.S. registrar for now. I’m looking into some choices, but one registrar I choose to avoid is DirectI/PublicDomainRegistry due to their being darn strict (yet understandably) stance on alleged phishing and spamming complaints towards domain registrations.

I’ll be sure to make my review for one in particular. But I’ll need time.

Meanwhile, only thing I can suggest is ensure your domain names are consistently paid for, have complete and accurate contact information, and try to stay with a registrar who’s more proactive than others. My personal votes go to Moniker and NameCheap for now.

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