I'm reading the TOS of my registrar, and am getting a little worried. I'm not doing anything terrible on my sites (i.e. racism, inciting violence, etc), but I don't care much for the "obscene, vulgar, or any for any other reason at our discretion" clause.
Does ICANN protect people from losing domain names to registrars who "deem at their sole discretion" that a user's website is vulgar?
Can a registrar take or cancel a domain name if the content (hosted elswhere) is at odds with their terms of service?
Yes they can. Online service agreements are generally one-sided, but most if not all will do
that only if they have found a very good reason to do so.
I'm reading the TOS of my registrar, and am getting a little worried. I'm not doing anything terrible on my sites (i.e. racism, inciting violence, etc), but I don't care much for the "obscene, vulgar, or any for any other reason at our discretion" clause.
Contact your registrar and clarify your intent. I asked my prospective registrar regarding
their anti-spamming policies and finally moved to them after their answers satisfied me.
Does ICANN protect people from losing domain names to registrars who "deem at their sole discretion" that a user's website is vulgar?
Unfortunately no. When you register your domain name with your registrar, you agreed to
their terms.
This is a gray area that still needs work. Who's to authoritatively say what's vulgar or not?
If it ever happens yet you truly feel you didn't do anything wrong and you can prove it,
remember that a registrar is also a business. Simply put, contact your local agency
assigned to handle consumer complaints.
