[AusNOG] [off-topic] US lawmakers bring in worldwide censorship laws

[Kim Davies]

Quoting James Troy (PageUp/AU/VIC) on Tuesday September 28, 2010:
|
| This is certainly strange, they know other countries wont recognise
| their legal system, so they are trying to impose it within their own
| jurisdiction. This might work for some registrars but I thought the AU
| registrar was based in AU, perhaps I am wrong, but if I am correct any
| site with a 2byte domain therefore would be exempt from this law. 

The proposal (as it is currently drafted, and as I understand it)
contains essentially three mechanisms of interest to network operators
for shuttering a domain:

a) Ability to block a domain at a registrar, if the registrar is in the US;
b) Ability to block a domain at a registry, if the registry is in the US,
   if (a) is not satisfied;
c) Ability to block a domain at the resolver level (e.g. at ISPs) in the
   US, if neither (a) or (b) are satisfied.

Which registries are covered by (b)? That is debatable. On the surface
it would appear clearly that includes VeriSign (operator of the registry
for .COM for example). NeuStar is a US-based registry operator for
a number of gTLDs. They and Afilias are two major back-end registry
providers for the likes of country-code domains like .CO and .ME. Would
they be impacted? Not so clear.

Another unclear question is how wide the scope of the term "registry"
is. The DNS root zone itself is a registry, and is operated in the US.
Would it be impacted? Not clear. 

As for (a), registrars are companies like Go Daddy and Network Solutions.
What is clear is that registrars sell licenses to domains not just within
their jurisdiction. I am not sure if any .AU registrars are American, but
they could be.

I think it is far too early to work out what is going to happen
with this, and I would think if it progresses will likely have some
tightening up in its definitions in its future.

kim