Homeland Security seizes and shuts down a CANADIAN gambling site
The site violated Maryland law even though the money transfers took place in/through non-USAian countries. The Feds filed suite in Maryland and indicted the owners, and got Verisign in California to shut down the domain.
A CANADIAN BUSINESS.
How many USAian sites violate EU laws? Or Chinese law? Or Myanmar law? Can you imagine the howl if the EU seized one and shut it down? The one thing is that the site was operating under .COM. The Canadians might have a .CA domain also registered, which theoretically Verisign could not touch as those are ultimately owned by the specific country.
I am reminded of a California couple who were operating a porn site featuring just their own vids and were indicted in Alabama or elsewhere in the "Bible Belt" for violating local decency laws. That case ultimately got thrown out. I think the Canucks will have to defend themselves in Maryland court, though if I were one of the owners I would not step foot in the U.S., and they should be able to get it thrown out, though they'll probably lose their .COM domain.
This was a very bad idea on a group of someone's part.
http://blog2.easydns.org/2012/02/29/verisign-seizes-com-domain-registered-via-foreign-registrar-on-behalf-of-us-authorities/
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/03/01/0412241/us-shuts-down-canadian-gambling-site-with-verisigns-help
A CANADIAN BUSINESS.
How many USAian sites violate EU laws? Or Chinese law? Or Myanmar law? Can you imagine the howl if the EU seized one and shut it down? The one thing is that the site was operating under .COM. The Canadians might have a .CA domain also registered, which theoretically Verisign could not touch as those are ultimately owned by the specific country.
I am reminded of a California couple who were operating a porn site featuring just their own vids and were indicted in Alabama or elsewhere in the "Bible Belt" for violating local decency laws. That case ultimately got thrown out. I think the Canucks will have to defend themselves in Maryland court, though if I were one of the owners I would not step foot in the U.S., and they should be able to get it thrown out, though they'll probably lose their .COM domain.
This was a very bad idea on a group of someone's part.
http://blog2.easydns.org/2012/02/29/verisign-seizes-com-domain-registered-via-foreign-registrar-on-behalf-of-us-authorities/
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/03/01/0412241/us-shuts-down-canadian-gambling-site-with-verisigns-help