Bulletin: Kentucky Judge Upholds Lawsuit Against 141 Domain Owners

[Duke]

A Kentucky judge has upheld that state's lawsuit aimed at taking 141 gambling related domain names away friom their owners. Unless the domain owners block Kentucky citizens from accessing their sites they could lose their domains in a final hearing Nov. 17:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/low...10-16-08-3.htm

[tomsa]

Really scaring...

[Acro]

What's next, mayor of Christianville, Alaska decides to take over lifestyle dating domains that include Alaska in their list?

[stewie]

What a joke!!! maybe Google should block out Kentucky State...and see how fast they change their minds.

[Acro]

NukeKentucky.com is available.

[gingeman]

backwards idiots.

[Raider]

The article leaves out a lot of details, But just going by what was written, I'm on the side of the Judge here, If Gambing is illegal in the State of Kentucky, The State has an obligation to enforce their own laws and take the sites down... I do NOT agree the State has a right to take the domains though, I think their are other options to restrict the owners from using them as Gambling sites...

Judge Thomas Wingate said it best here;

Wingate dismissed the idea that the global Internet was not subject to Kentucky law, writing that the Internet is "not above the law, whether or an international or municipal level."

Maybe the owners could program the site where it restricts Kentucky ISP addresses... Would that work?

[fab]

The question is, is it the responsibility of the domain (website) owners to enforce those laws. Are web-site owners liable for minors viewing porn sites?

[DNWizardX9]

they should just block ips originating from kentucky.

[Carter]

Kentucky love gambling

[stewie]

Kentucky love gambling

yes as long as they get the $$$

What's the Kentucky Derby? A bunch of horses running around in a circle?

[Onward]

The question is, is it the responsibility of the domain (website) owners to enforce those laws. Are web-site owners liable for minors viewing porn sites?

Very good point...

Every porn site should be taken down and owner stripped of their domain due to horny teens in Kentucky...and Kentucky's inability to enforce their own laws....

Also....time to strip all the alcohol site owners of their domain...such as the wine of the month club type sites...and any site where alcohol can be purchased....those Kentucky teens may use the internet to purchase these items of the devil.

Maybe an answer for *** backward states and judges...require the gambling sites to do what alcohol & cigarette companies do...(with requiring the user to enter a dob before access)....the gambling site should have the user enter a zipcode or an IP address (in the extreme)...This way kentucky could then focus on law enforcement when their citizens use free will.

[gingeman]

I don't think it should be the responsibility of the website owner to put in effort to enforce state laws, especially if their site does not actually 'target' kentucky citizens. If that was the case it would be different, but this is ridiculous. As a site owner, you can't be expected to put hours of extra work into your site just to make sure it is acceptable to every local authority in the world. Crazy IMHO. If Kentucky don't like it, maybe they should run all internet access from kentucky through a filter of some kind.

[Michael Collins]

The article leaves out a lot of details, But just going by what was written, I'm on the side of the Judge here, If Gambing is illegal in the State of Kentucky, The State has an obligation to enforce their own laws and take the sites down... I do NOT agree the State has a right to take the domains though, I think their are other options to restrict the owners from using them as Gambling sites...

Judge Thomas Wingate said it best here;

Wingate dismissed the idea that the global Internet was not subject to Kentucky law, writing that the Internet is "not above the law, whether or an international or municipal level."

Maybe the owners could program the site where it restricts Kentucky ISP addresses... Would that work?

It is a dangerous precident for a government to try to control businesses or web content by taking the domain names of businesses operated legally and regulated in other jurisdictions especially other countries. It is especially troublesome that online gambling is permitted in Kentucky if regulated and taxed there. See TwinSpires.com. It is crazy to think that the Governor is opposed to gambling. Read his history.

It seems to be a Governor trying to protect his state's businesses from competition. What if he decides to protect the state's retailers from Amazon.com competition next?

[Acro]

Michael, this is a byproduct of the way local governments are using local laws; why isn't federal law of higher importance? I understand the reason behind local ordinances but surely these local laws should not apply to entities that are "resident" on a worldwide network, especially existing as assets in other countries.

[Area52]

What arrogance. And of course, it's a democrat leading the charge to take your domain names. You Obama supporters better get busy dumping your names if he wins. We all are going to have to change our strategy when the democrats start restricting and taxing the industry.
I even bet a democratic administration would attempt to repeal the internet tax exemption. Don't you just love change.

[Acro]

Ignorance knows no party lines. So what if he's a democrat; Olympia Snowe is a Republican. Making statements like the one above displays a fear-mongering approach to things. Much like that of GW Bush's during the past 7 years.

[mulligan]

Be interesting to see how ICANN responds (Though I'll likely be long dead before they can form a committee to form a committee to see how they can screw the fees we all pay out of us to take a holiday down in Kentucky)

[speculatr]

It is a dangerous precident for a government to try to control businesses or web content by taking the domain names of businesses operated legally and regulated in other jurisdictions especially other countries. It is especially troublesome that online gambling is permitted in Kentucky if regulated and taxed there. See TwinSpires.com. It is crazy to think that the Governor is opposed to gambling. Read his history.

It seems to be a Governor trying to protect his state's businesses from competition. What if he decides to protect the state's retailers from Amazon.com competition next?

This is ludicrous and destroys the internet. Lets say that some Island country or state is the number # grower of roses. They can now simply pass a law that says nobody can sell flowers in their country online. And take the domain names of those who do.

Tip - move your domains out of the United States as quick as possible.

[dn-101]

Absolutely amazing!
This is the best thing that ever happend to the DN community. The defendats have deep pockets and will definitely take this case all the way to the Supreme Court.