Apparently the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has called dibs on all the .com and .net top level domains of the interwebz. Why, you ask? To fight crime! You know, like Batman! Because ICE sees itself as the hero the internet needs. A silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.
In an interview with the (not silent) Guardian, Erik Barnett, assistant deputy director of ICE said that “by definition, almost all copyright infringement and trademark violation is transnational. There’s very little purely domestic intellectual property theft (LOL).” That, coupled with the fact that the Domain Name Service (DNS) indexes for .com and .net websites are routed through a US-based registry, has made ICE claim that all .com and .net sites are within its jurisdiction – even if their servers aren’t based in the US and the service they provide is legal in the host country.
What does this mean for website owners? Not much, unless they use .com/.net sites to break US copyrights. In that case, even if the websites have no links to the US and the servers are based elsewhere, ICE can seize them and their owners could face extradition.
Let’s just hope this won’t evolve from copyright watch to “we don’t like what you’re saying” internet policing.
