The U.S. Commerce Department has ordered companies that administer internet addresses to stop allowing customers to register .us domain names anonymously using proxy services.The NTIA [National Telecommunications and Information Administration] did not return a call for comment. But it told registrars it was not setting a new policy with the directive -- it was simply enforcing a provision in a pre-existing contract that the registrars had violated. But Christine Jones, general counsel for Go Daddy, the largest registrar of .us domains, disputed this.
"This has nothing to do with them clarifying an existing contract," Jones said. "We've been selling proxy registrations for three years; they knew it but never said anything against it. They established a new policy, and for them to say otherwise is pure crap."
[wired.com...]
National Telecommunications and Information Administration [NTIA], the agency that oversees the country's .us domain, responded to a story published Friday by stating that the department never agreed to the use of proxy registrations that allowed domain owners to shield their personal contact information from the prying eyes of the public, and therefore was not changing its policy by banning them now....Go Daddy general counsel Christine Jones said the added paragraph constituted new policy, not clarification of an existing policy, and criticized the government for making the pronouncement three years too late, since Go Daddy has been selling proxy registrations for three years. She said NeuStar knew Go Daddy was selling proxy registrations during that period and that the Department of Commerce should have known about it as well.
NeuStar did not dispute that it knew the proxy registrations were occurring.
[wired.com...]
As soon as you get black hatted for one domain, then that whois registry becomes a flag for any other domain registered under the same whois entry.
The government is making it loud and clear that they have no respect for its citizens, except maybe as mindless drone employees to earn money only to give it away in the form of taxes. The NTIA has taken away the right for anyone to acquire .us extensions, and those who own them are being requested to give them up. If they can do this to .us extensions how long will it be until the rest of the “dots” are affected?
I would love to know the real reason behind this. My guess is some of these knucklehead politicians don't like people posting information on the net that mainstream media filters out, and currently .US is the only thing they can control.
[edited by: tedster at 9:08 am (utc) on Mar. 31, 2005]
I think that most of us have nothing to hide—most of us have pretty harmless or benign sites, and are law-abiding people. But it seems to be common sense to not want everyone to know your phone # and home address.
