Moving domain names out of the United States may not be safer.

Last week I wrote about a growing movement for transferring domain names away from United States registrars to other countries. I argued that:

-Even if you move your domains to a non-U.S. registrar, U.S. courts could still claim jurisdiction through Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) or ICANN
-Other countries also make silly decisions that could jeopardize your domains

I gave the suggestion of an Australian court making a rash decision, to which one commentor replied “Let’s be honest here. The US courts make stupid decisions all the time. Much more frequently than other first world courts do.”

Well, what about the non-judicial branch of countries? It turns out you should be fearful, as Australia’s federal government wants to implement a nationwide firewall to block what it deems to be “inappropriate” or “illegal” content. GigaOm points out that Australia is not the only country with similar plans.

What’s surprising here is that this isn’t some oppressive regime like that of China or North Korea. And it goes to show that other countries want to control the internet, too. (Note: If you are in China and can read this post, please e-mail me to let me know it’s not blocked.)

Moves like this make me even more wary of policies for new TLDs, including ICANN’s consideration of “Morality and Public Order Objection Considerations in New gTLDs”.

As one commentor pointed out in response to the “Morality” issue, we don’t censor what domains you can register on current TLDs (country code domains are a different matter). Why censor top level domains?

Registrar says convicted president resigned in July.

Domain registrar EstDomains might remain an accredited domain registrar after all.

Yesterday Domain Name Wire reported that EstDomains received a notice of termination from Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN cited the conviction of EstDomains’ president Vladimir Tsastsin for credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery in February as the reason for the termination.

The company claims that Tsastsin resigned his position back in June, so the reasoning for ICANN’s termination is invalid. ICANN has issued a stay while it considers the matter. EstDomains will retain its accredited status during review.

For his part, Tsastin is appealing the conviction.

I wonder if ICANN used the conviction as a termination reason because it was the easiest way to terminate EstDomains. The registrar faces allegations of harboring spam houses and malware distributors, but it would be harder to prove these things and find a way to terminate under ICANN’s accreditation agreement. It’s kind of like locking up a mobster on tax charges rather than murder.

Site urges people to call Kentucky Governor on Halloween to express disappointment over domain seizure.

BoycottKentucky.com, a site inspired in part by a Domain Name Wire article, is asking people to call Kentucky Governor Beshear on Halloween to help persuade the governor to end his seizure of domain names:

Governor Beshear’s actions are downright scary!!!

Call his office on 10/31/2008 and tell his staff that you oppose the Governor’s actions and urge him to reconsider his wanton seizure of lawfully owned domain names. His aggressive actions infringe on civil liberties, harm business and are costing Kentucky taxpayers money. Urge friends and family to call. Pass along this post. Let’s overwhelm the Governor’s switchboard on 10/31 and show him that we are outraged!!!

The number to call on Halloween is (502) 564-2611.

Of all of the ways to help change Beshear’s aggressive actions, I think phone calls and letters to both his office and those of other state representatives will work the best. It’s important that Kentucky citizens get involved, too. They’re the ones who voted Beshear into office. If you have friends or family in Kentucky, please educate them about the issue and ask them to contact Beshear and their local state representatives.

Expect new TLD applications for .xxx, but expect challenges too.

Poor .xxx. The top level domain that never was to be. On again, off again.

With the new top level domain process getting into high gear and ICANN expecting 500 applications, you can be assured that some of them will be for .xxx, .sex, or .porn.

But will they be approved? The morality police are on the prowl.

Today ICANN released an explanatory memo “Morality and Public Order Objection Considerations in New gTLDs” about controversial TLDs (pdf). This is sure to be a hotly debated subject and ICANN has put a lot of legwork into formulating a consensus. So far the consensus is that panels could reject anything related to incitement of violent lawless action, incitement to or promotion of discrimination based upon race, color, gender, ethnicity, religion or national origin, and incitement to or promotion of child pornography.

Few would disagree with that.

But the discussion will be around what violates norms in various countries and not others: gambling and pornography are high on that list. After all, you can’t register second level domains related to these two in some middle eastern domains, such as .AE.

Perhaps someone should apply for .equalrightsforwomen and give a free email address to all women in Saudi Arabia. On second thought, I’d hate to see all of them in jail.

Registrar loses ICANN accreditation.

Domain registrar EstDomains, Inc has lost its ICANN accreditation.

The registrar had been the subject of many negative stories, including allegations that it perpetuated malware and spyware sites as well as spam. EstDomains also resold Directi services including its whois privacy service. (Directi is parent company of domain parking service Skenzo). Directi pulled the plug on offering privacy protection to EstDomains, thus opening up the whois information for anyone to see. This may have included whois information for innocent domain registrants. Directi declined to cut off EstDomains completely for fear that innocent domain registrants would lose their domains, according to an article in The Washington Post.

The official reason for EstDomains losing its accreditation is the CEO’s recent conviction on cyber crime charges, reports The Washington Post.

A notice on the ICANN web site invites other registrars to apply to take over the 280,000 domain names registered at EstDomains. Although this represents many more domains than are typically handed over after a registrar is de-accredited, applicants should tread carefully. The Washington Post article estimates that as many as a third of them are for spammy terms such as various prescription drugs.