The United States Embassy in Costa Rica has been pressuring the local ccTLD operator, NIC Costa Rica, to take down thepiratebay.cr domain name with increasing urgency as the registry resists. And if they refuse there have been threats to take the registry operation away from NIC Costa Rica.
In a letter to ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee [pdf], Dr. Pedro León Azofeifa, President of the Costa Rican Academy of Science, parent of NIC Costa Rica, advises that since 2015 the US Embassy in Costa Rica, representing the interests of the US Department of Commerce, who in turn is acting on behalf of American intellectual property interests, has frequently contacted the registry operator regarding the domain name for one of the leading websites providing access to an index of digital content, much of it pirated. The Pirate Bay has been operational since 2003 and has moved to several top level domains, and sometimes back again, as court cases and government, mostly US, pressure to delete the torrent site’s domain names.
The country code top level domain operator writes that The Pirate Bay has more than 70 domain names registered worldwide. They further advise the GAC that the interactions with the US Embassy “have escalated with time and include great pressure since 2016 that is exemplified by several phone calls, emails and meeting urging our ccTLD to take down the domain, even though this would go against our domain name policies.” The letter also notes that the US Department of Commerce has urged the Costa Rican “Ministry of Commerce to carry out an investigation as to why our local Ministry of Commerce to carry out an investigation as to why our organisation does not take down this domain, even though the process they ask us to follow goes against our current domain name policies.”
NIC Costa Rica advises the GAC that the “Ministry of Commerce has carried out an investigation and informed us that NIC Costa Rica was acting following best practices and has clear mechanisms to take down domain names that required a local court order. The representative of the United States Embassy, Mr. Kevin Ludeke , Economic Specialist, who claims to represent the interests of the US Department of Commerce, has mentioned threats to close our registry, with repeated harassment regarding our practices and operation policies and even personal negative comments directed to our Executive Director , based on no clear evidence or statistical data to support his claims as a way to pressure our organisation to take down the domain name without following our current policies.”
The registry notes their “domain policies work in accordance with the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society.” The registry goes on to note that “in accordance with these guidelines, when confronted with a conflict related to a domain name registered under .cr, which infringes upon the legislation pertaining to intellectual property, the registration of marks, or in which there is a crime including–but not limited to–drug trafficking, child pornography, human trafficking, or bank fraud, then NIC Costa Rica will proceed to eliminate the domain name if ordered to do so by a final judgment from the Courts of Justice of the Republic of Costa Rica.”
The registry has advised the US Embassy that they need to have a local court order in order to proceed to take down or block any domain as exemplified above. However, despite these arguments, the pressure and harassment to take down the domain name without its proper process and local court order persists.”
According to a recent announcement from NIC Costa Rica, both registrants and the registry now have the option of auctioning .cr domain names.
NIC Costa Rica is offering discounts on one-year new registrations for second level .cr domain names in the first week of September.