Quote: (05-03-2018 11:56 PM)Suits Wrote:
I read a few news articles, but saw no evidence that GoDaddy had specifically seized the altright.com domain.
According to one source, the registrar of the domain was given 48 hours to transfer the domain to a different host.
Quote:Quote:
But on Thursday, domain registrar GoDaddy finally pulled the plug on AltRight.com, giving Spencer’s website 48 hours to transfer its domain to another web host or lose it.
I'm not knowledgeable enough about domain registrations to understand what would happen if the 48 hours expired without the domain name being successfully transferred to a different host. Would it then become Godaddy's domain or would it just become unregistered?
Considering it is GoDaddy, and they have a bad reputation with domain name transfers, I don't know. Generally speaking, they should release the name back to the general registrar and then, within a certain period of time, anyone could buy it from a private registrar that is licensed to deal in .coms. That being said, GoDaddy can buy it themselves, and they have done this many, many times before. They could then simply choose not to offer it for auction.
I don't know that the individual action of one private registrar counts as a violation of the 1st Amendment, as the consumer (theoretically) has the right to take their business (publication) to any other private registrar. Now if the government were to de facto or de jure compel US based registrars not to allow certain kinds of speech (websites) to be registered, that would be a violation of the 1st Amendment.
This thread is all over the place, and a few people were asking basic questions at the start, so I will give a shot to answering some. If you know about domain names and hosting, the below may be of no interest to you.
We are generally talking about two separate issues when we speak of most clearnet websites, forums, and the like. Those are domain name registration and hosting. The domain name (whatever.com, for example) is just a human way of expressing a registered static IP address (123.144.145.99, for example). RVF has an "actual" machine web address at some random IP. You could plug that number in up in the address bar, and it would bring you here. PROTIP: In some cases, when a domain name is seized or redirected, knowing the IP address of the site, itself will still get you to the original site, although this does not work in all cases. Hosting is where the data that comprises a site is stored/based. A site may have its domain name and hosting through the same company and in the same country or it may not. In many cases, the owner of a site will choose to register with one domain name provider, and host with another company (or self host, using a server in their basement, which we know some politicians have a habit of doing).
This layer cake operation opens up many vulnerabilities to the site owner. On the hosting level, you really only have to worry about the three big baddies; the government, the hosting company, and hackers. The government can and does seize data from hosts. This might include, for example, a list of all the geo-IPs that logged in to RVF and all member's PM's. The government can also pull or wipe the data. The company hosting can, often and depending on the TOS's, do the same. Finally, hackers can always attempt to access the hosting data for any number of nefarious reasons. And, hackers are often politically motivated, so this is a real concern for everyone with an opinion on anything.
On the domain level, you also have to worry about these three. Hackers won't really be a problem, as a hacked domain name (that is, for example, redirected) can be set right by the registration company. The company, on the other hand, can be a nightmare. They can, in many cases, effectively seize and redirect your name. They can also cancel your registration and put your domain name back up for sale, potentially giving it to someone else. Or they can cancel it and buy it themselves, allowing them to auction it off for any amount they want. Most registration companies claim they don't do this, but a simple search of GoDaddy's "shady" reputation in this area would indicate otherwise. Finally, you have the government. What can they do? A lot, depending on your TLD. The TLD is the .com or .org or .ru. Some of these are GTLDs (generic) like .com and .org. Some are ccTLDs. These are supposed to represent a specific country, like .ca for Canada. Theoretically all ccTLDs are under the jurisdiction of their "home" country. In practice, many ccTLDs for small countries are handled by private registrars or registrars from larger countries. That complicates the issue. Long story short, the government that oversees the TLD can seize it, shut it down, and/or redirect it. Good luck getting it back. And the US Government controls .com, .net, .org, etc.
The standard operating procedure for "undesirable" but legal clearnet sites is to have a primary domain at something like a .com. This is followed by a secondary domain at a safer TLD, like .ba or something. The hosting is handled by a "friendly" or "hands off" host, almost always in a foreign jurisdiction, and frequently with a zero knowledge policy (this means they don't look at or care what you are publishing, as long as it isn't broadly illegal like child pornography). I have heard good things about Icy Evolution, but there are many others. Offsite data backup is a must, as it might be neccessary to move hosts multiple times.
Many had enough with the clearnet system (or they were actually doing something illegal or dangerous) and they moved to the darknet. Those systems, and their brothers, run entirely differently. TOR, Freenet, I2P. There are others. I will leave it to the curious to investigate on their own, but I wouldn't go poking around on those networks if I didn't understand what I was doing.
TL;DR - GoDaddy can punt or keep the domain, depending. Probably not a 1st Amendment violation. Owning a website is fraught with legal and jurisdictional difficulties. Check out the darknet, if you dare.
