Recent legal actions (Rustock, Coreflood and Kelihos, among others) that resulted in disrupting or dismantling major criminal networks and involved domain name seizures, DNS name server reconfiguration and transfers of domain name registrations as part of the takedown actions have led ICANN to release a paper for comment on domain name seizures and takedowns.Described as a “thought paper” by ICANN in a posting on their Blog [PDF, 449 KB], the paper offers guidance for anyone who prepares an order that seeks to seize or take down domain names. Its purpose is to help preparers of legal or regulatory actions understand what information top level domain name (TLD) registration providers such as registries and registrars will need to respond promptly and effectively to a legal or regulatory order or action.The blog posting goes on to say the paper explains how information about a domain name is managed and by whom. In particular, it explains that a seizure typically affects three operational elements of the Internet name system ­ domain name registration services, the domain name system (DNS) and WHOIS services ­ and encourages preparers of legal or regulatory actions to consider each when they prepare documentation for a court action.The thought paper has been prepared by ICANN’s Security team, its authors and contributors are technical and operational staff, not attorneys (although persons with legal expertise were consulted in the preparation of this document). There will be members from ICANN’s Security team at the upcoming ICANN meeting in Costa Rica and they will be available to discuss this further with the community.The above information was sourced from a posting on the ICANN Blog at:
blog.icann.org/2012/03/thought-paper-on-domain-seizures-and-takedowns/