Free Republic

Two US organizations – a non-profit and a corporation – are planning to “quietly” give governments around the world the right to seize domain names by means of canceling, redirecting, or transferring control. This is based on the “Proposed Renewal of the Registry Agreement for .NET” – recently published by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and Verisign. Verisign is in charge of operating .COM and .NET TLDs (top-level domains, and while what critically-minded observers say the controversial paper now aims to change relates only to the .NET domain names, the fear is that the world is...

Media ignore transfer of control of Internet domain names? A coalition of technology groups and conservatives wants Congress to sue to stop the Obama administration from handing over control of Internet domain names to an international board, charging it could give authoritarian regimes power over the web. Since 1998, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department called the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) has handled domain names. However, in September, the Obama administration plans to allow the U.S. government’s contract to lapse so the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will be run by a global board of...

OK tech savvy freepers. Want to get new domain names registered. No games, no upsells and no transfer fees. So, forgetting go daddy, web.com, register.com.... what is simplest and no BS in the process or after registering?

The latest round of attacks aimed toward Donald Trump can only reasonably be considered divinely inspired fails. OMG Donald Trump Supports Eminent Domain!! [ *NOTE* Watch closely who picks up on this attack approach and you’ll identify an even larger number of the GOPe deceivers than were visible before. ] Brett Baier interviewed Donald Trump for his Fox News Special Report segment and carried with him a specifically pre-framed angle of attack, an agenda. Baier used the Club for Growth argument (see video: @3:34) for conversation about Eminent Domain.

http://dailysignal.com/2015/09/16/connecticut-homeowners-fight-to-prevent-city-from-taking-their-homes-for-redevelopment/ Energy News Connecticut Homeowners Fight to Prevent City From Taking Their Homes for Redevelopment Melissa Quinn / @MelissaQuinn97 / September 16, 2015 / Janet Rodriguez's house on First Avenue in West Haven, Conn., is one of the homes the city is approved the use eminent domain on to make way for a $200 million high-end mall. (Photo: Janet Rodriguez) Every day, Janet Rodriguez sits at her home in West Haven, Conn., and she waits. She waits for a knock at her front door, a knock she fears will bring news that Rodriguez and her family will be forced to...

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.

I am interested in registering a couple of domain names, but I am not sure which company to go with...GoDaddy seems decent, but a number of customers have complained about them being 'pushy'. Namecheap has good testimonials, but there are several drawbacks, as well. I thought I would solicit feedback from Freepers to see if there is a consensus of opinion.

A US court has ordered a major dynamic DNS company, abused to distribute malware, to turn domain control over to Microsoft.

The City of Richmond’s move to seize the loans of over-mortgaged homes can continue, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled this week. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the reason was because “he felt the case, brought by Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank on behalf of holders of loans on over-mortgaged homes, was not ‘ripe for determination’ since Richmond had not exercised eminent domain and might never do so.” Despite an initial win in federal court, will Richmond first have to prove that loans on over-mortgaged homes in its city are “trapped” to meet the “blight” criteria of California...

Richmond's controversial plan to seize underwater mortgages through eminent domain includes loans for at least two homes purchased for over $1 million as well as other high-end properties - a revelation that appears to undermine the city's argument that the plan would combat blight. The city is pursuing mortgages with balances ranging from $98,000 to $1.12 million, according to data collected by Marc Joffe, an analyst who received the property addresses, loan balances, offer amounts and other information through a California public records request and shared them with The Chronicle. --SNIP-- Eminent domain is the seizure of private property for...

According to the Department of Labor, in the week ending August 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 333,000, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 328,000. The 4-week moving average was 335,500, a decrease of 6,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 341,750. joblessc080813 Continuing claims rose above the 3 million mark, printing at 3,018,000. This represents an increase from the previous week of 2,951,000. Yet we seem stuck in a continuing claims slump since April. ontjc080823 Consumer confidence? It rose to -23.5, the highest level since early 2008. bcc080813 Delinquent...

Richmond California is considering invoking eminent domain to condemn and seize hundreds of underwater mortgages to help troubled homeowners. The controversial move would be the first of its kind in the country. Richmond is not the first to consider it. San Bernardino (also known as San Berdoo) considered … and rejected it. Richmond is the farthest along in a plan advocated by Steven Gluckstern’s Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC for U.S. cities to confiscate mortgages and write them down in an effort to help homeowners escape oversized debt burdens. The idea has drawn opposition from bondholders such as Pacific Investment Management...

Wall Street warns against using eminent domain to seize underwater mortgagesBy Peter Schroeder - 08/19/12 05:00 PM ET Heavy hitters in the financial industry are lining up against a new idea brewing among local government officials to help struggling homeowners by seizing control of their mortgages through eminent domain. With many areas of the country still digging out from the housing crisis, some local governments are considering taking on the underwater mortgages at a substantially lower price, thus making them more affordable for the borrower. With policymakers at the federal, state and local level struggling to find a way to...

The Wall Street Journal reports that seizing mortgage could yield BIG returns for investors. “Tapping the power of eminent domain to repair underwater mortgages could generate investor returns of up to 30% and billions of dollars in fees for bankers behind the proposal, according to people with knowledge of the plan. Despite the controversy, some potential investors in Mortgage Resolution’s plan are stepping forward. “We think the program has legs and a fairly strong legal justification” to seize mortgages with eminent domain, said Tom Capasse, co-head of Waterfall Asset Management, which said it is considering investing in the plan.” Of...

In his op-ed, Professor Shiller discusses an approach by Professor Robert Hockett from Cornell Law School – using eminent domain powers of government to force principal writedowns for mortgages. “Professor Hockett argues that a government, whether federal, state or local, can start doing just this right now, using large databases of information about mortgage pools and homeowner credit scores. After a market analysis, it seizes the mortgages. Then it can pay them off at fair value, or a little over that, with money from new investors, issuing new mortgages with smaller balances to the homeowners. Taxpayers are not involved, and...

House votes to overturn Supreme Court decision on eminent domainBy Pete Kasperowicz - 02/28/12 05:19 PM ET The House on Tuesday afternoon approved legislation that overturns a 2005 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the ability of states to take control of private property under the doctrine of eminent domain and hand it to another private developer. That decision, Kelo v. City of New London, led to sharp complaints in particular from Republicans, who argued that the Court ignored the normal "public use" standard. Under that standard, eminent domain was seen as permissible only when the land or property taken would...

Hi all - I need some help finding a good spot to host a web site for a friend of mine. I use GoDaddy for some of my personal stuff, but was trying to see if there are any other good/fast/cheap alternatives. I need to register his new domain and need just a few megs of space for an informational web site that will be no longer than 2 or 3 pages and a couple of links. Any pointers would be a big help. Thanks!

A plan to populate the internet with hundreds or thousands of new top-level domains has security researchers pondering some of the unintended consequences that could be exploited by online criminals. Some of the scenarios aren't pretty. Consider the mayhem that might result from addresses that end in “exchange,” “mailserver,” “domain,” or other strings that are frequently used to designate highly sensitive resources on corporate and government networks. If a glitch ever caused an email program or other application to reach one of these external addresses, instead of the internal server carrying the identical host name, the outcome could prove disastrous...

Imagine you're a respectable, law-abiding owner of a small business. You show up to your shop one morning, only to find the doors barred and a big sign in front window reading, "The federal government has seized this business as it's affiliated with creating, distributing, and/or storing child pornography." Worse yet, imagine that every other business on the block was similarly locked up and had the same damning explanation on their front window. And even once the confusion was cleared up with the feds, it took a few days more to get all the signs down and all of the...

Following on from news of the third phase of ‘piracy’ and counterfeit related domain seizures in 7 months, US Senator Ron Wyden has asked the director of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to clarify some of the most pressing questions. If the domain seizures are to continue, the Obama administration has to be more open about the need for them and the process involved, he argues. Earlier this week we broke the news that US authorities had started a third round of domain seizures. This time, it turned out that the actions were aimed at sports streaming sites....