Free Republic

Action Follows Last Month’s Seizure of 92 IRGC DomainsSAN FRANCISCO – The United States has seized 27 domain names that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unlawfully used to further a global covert influence campaign.As described in the seizure documents, all 27 domains were being used in violation of U.S. sanctions targeting both the Government of Iran and the IRGC. Four of the domains purported to be genuine news outlets but were actually controlled by the IRGC and targeted audiences in the United States, to covertly influence United States policy and public opinion, in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration...

Just this morning Drudge sounded the alarm: 'UN COULD TAKE CONTROL OF INTERNET'. But it doesn't matter who Obama chooses. He announced that he would be giving away the internet, the earthly CROWN JEWEL of worldwide freedom. And knowing who he is, he will give it to people who believe in 'hate speech' and anything that censors meaningful opposition to his perverse agenda. Let's face facts. We are on the verge of losing the internet on September 30 -- this year. The only people to save us are the very republicans we criticize the most. We must eat humble pie...

Sen. Cruz Leads Bicameral Letter Asking GAO to Determine Whether Obama Administration Has Power to Give Away the Internet Judiciary Chairmen Grassley and Goodlatte, with Rep. Issa, join Cruz to get answers on whether Administration’s plan violates the Constitution WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), along with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an affirmative determination of whether the Obama Administration’s plan...

Taylor Swift has bought the web domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult. The addresses are part of a public sale by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The web domain names go on sale to the public on 1 June but some stars and companies are being given the opportunity to buy them ahead of then.

FRiends, I need to tap Freeper expertise. My little business needs a web site and I was wondering what my FR comrades thought of godaddy.com, domain.com, wikihow.com, namecheap.com and any other web-hosting sites that folks may have experienced. I have a storefront coffee and chocolate shop and I'm thinking of adding shipping to our gift basket offers. Our business is very new and small but we have some great lines of Belgium chocolate and value-packed gift baskets with teas, coffees, chocolates, and premium cookies.

...Yes, that’s actually Ron Paul’s website asking you to donate to his campaign. It appears someone has bought the rickperry.com domain name and set up a redirect to ronpaul2012.com. If you’re looking for information on how to donate to Rick Perry’s presidential campaign you’d want to go to rickperry.org. .....Also, a warning to Newt Gingrich’s campaign: newtgingrich.com is currently for sale. His campaign, located at newt.org, might want to look into that.

In a pending civil lawsuit in a Texas Federal Court, a constitutional nightmare is occurring that could have ominous consequences for all Americans. In violation of the Constitution, The activist federal judge in this case has made a U.S. business owner essentially a slave without any due process or hearing. All of the relevant details of this profoundly disturbing case are summarized at case overview tab on LawInjustice.com. No case in recent judicial history resembles more of a Stalinist show trial. The conduct appears to be more corruption than merely judicial activism and the litany of outrages occurring are almost...

It was hardly noticed at the time, but its consequences could be catastrophic. Late last September, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which assigns internet domain names, approved a huge change in the way it operates. Europe and North America will now have five seats on its Board of Directors, instead of ten, and a new "Arab States" region will have five seats as well. How big a deal is this? ICANN at the same time took a reference to "terrorism" out of its Draft Applicant Guidebook. Why? Because Arab groups complained. And so now jihad terror...

Wow, those Arabs are clever. So clever--or devious, or dangerous--that they've managed to rearrange continents, to rearrange computer domain names to suit their political/religious/financial objectives. In The Lawfare Project, Aaron Eitan Meyer explains this latest Arab attack. "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the entity responsible for assigning domain names on the Internet. (snip) ICANN works 'in particular to ensure the stable and secure operation of the Internet's unique identifier systems.'"[1] Formerly overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce, ICANN has been under "international and multilateral control" for over a year. And this has brought about...

ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) apparently "seized" a bunch of domain pointers the last couple of days and has generated an immense amount of heat and damn little light. I'll try to add a bit of light and hopefully, not much (if any) heat. First, these sorts of things are not new. I used to get subpoenas from Customs on a somewhat-regular basis when I ran MCSNet. I considered them one of the more-reasonable government agencies, actually - they paid for their document production and were rational people. For those who are unaware if you're importing something into the country...

The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak. ICE appears to be targeting sites that help Internet users download copyrighted music, as well as sites that sell bootleg goods, such as fake designer handbags. The sites are replaced with a note from the government: "This domain named has been seized by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations." For instance, 2009jersey.com, 51607.com, and amoyhy.com have each been seized. One of the site owners told...

Excerpt - The organization that oversees Internet addresses is expected Thursday to approve a proposal to create an unlimited number of so-called top-level domains -- the familiar suffixes like ".com" at the end of Web addresses. Under the plan, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will allow organizations to apply for any top-level domain. Businesses, for example, could use brand names such as ".ibm" or ".ebay" in their Web addresses. Cities could sign up for names like ".nyc" or ".berlin." It will also be possible to apply to use more general terms, such as ".news" or ".sports," to...

Excerpt - In a legal decision that stunned even the lawyers for the victor, a U.S. District Court judge on Mar. 8 handed over the embattled Web registrar Registerfly.com to the executive who was running it when it began to founder. Judge Peter Sheridan ruled in favor of defendant Kevin Medina, who had been chief executive of the parent company, Unifiednames, before he was fired by two other board members on Feb. 12. ~ snip ~ Naruszewicz, one of the two who had fired Medina and taken control of the company, doesn't plan to appeal the judge's decision. "We lost...

It's not often you can compare Internet addresses with clothing, but a growing practice comes close, contributing to a global shortage in good names. Entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of a five-day grace period to sample millions of domain names, keeping the relative few that might generate advertising revenues and dropping the rest before paying. It's akin to buying new clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a big party. The grace period was originally designed to rectify legitimate mistakes, such as registrants mistyping the domain name they are about...

Political fray includes domain names PROP. 87 BACKERS CREATE PHONY SITES TO THWART RIVALS By Mary Anne Ostrom Mercury News Call it a case of cyberantics with a cause. The dueling camps over Proposition 87, the November initiative that would impose a fee on oil extracted in California, have been duking it out all week over control of Web site domain names. In what's being acknowledged as a stunt to drum up support for the initiative, campaign backers got control of a number of Web site addresses with names more suited for the opposition. This week, Web users who clicked...

ALARM - Agreement in Tunis on a progressive evolution of Internet TUNIS - an agreement on a progressive modification of the Internet was reached Tuesday, avoiding a rupture between the United States, hostile with any international control, and the rest of the world, announced negotiators at the world Top on the company of the information (SMSI) of Tunis. MORE...

International bureaucrats and assorted countries are struggling to wrest control of "Internet governance" from that old unilateralist bogeyman, the United States. There's one big problem with this picture: Cyberspace isn't "governed" by the U.S. or anyone else, and that's the beauty of it. But if the United Nations gets its way..., the Web will end up under its control.... Internet governance, such as it is, currently falls under the purview of a California-based nonprofit called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Better known as Icann, it was created by the U.S. Commerce Department in 1998 to administer the...

Phishing Concerns to Delay Non-English Domain NamesBy Anick Jesdanun The Associated Press Published: Jul 15, 2005 NEW YORK (AP) - Concerns about "phishing" e-mail scams will likely delay the expansion of domain names beyond non-English characters, the chairman of the Internet's key oversight agency said Friday. Vint Cerf, head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, would not speculate on when such characters might appear but said Internet engineers must now spend time "trying to winnow down, frankly, the number of character (sets) that are allowed to be registered." Demand for non-English domain names is high outside the...

Man, I knew nothing about this .xxx domain names. I bet it's going to be profitable for people. So, I went on eBay and looked it up and boy what did I see. Someone is selling www.paris.xxx. Auction link below. EBAY AUCTION FOR .XXX DOMAIN or eBay has this link LINK HEREI bet Goldenpalacecasino will buy it, they're the online casino that bought the grilled cheese sandwich and a lot of other crazy things. Washington: The Internet's regulator has moved a step closer to authorising a sex-oriented designation for websites ".xxx" in an effort to create a self-regulated adult entertainment...

<p>Typically, only heads of state and titans of industry get an audience on the 38th floor of the marble-and-glass tower housing the United Nations.</p> <p>So when the president of a California nonprofit corporation with an unwieldy name -- the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- met Friday with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, it signaled the group's importance in a computer-driven world.</p>