As the United States authorities continue with their domain name seizure policy, file-sharing, streaming and link site operators around the world are looking for ways to mitigate this aggressive action. To this end, an Internet engineer and website operator has put together a guide that might just help site owners avoid a whole heap of inconvenience in the future.
This week, an ever more familiar picture started to emerge, the third such situation in well under a year. US authorities had begun another round of domain name seizures, this time against sites connected with sports streaming.
The domains seized included HQ-streams.com, HQ-streams.net, Atdhe.net, Firstrow.net, Ilemi.com, Iilemi.com, Iilemii.com, Channelsurfing.net, Rojadirecta.net and Rojadirecta.com.
These latest seizures were the final straw for one angry TorrentFreak reader.
“First they came for the Napsters, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Napster. Then they came for the Torrents, and I didn’t speak out because I didn’t use Torrents. Then they came for the file-sharers, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a file-sharer,” the email began.
“And then they came for me and for my sites, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
These words come from SearchFreak, an internet engineer and chief executive of an Internet business that provides services to millions of users. Outraged at the seizing of domains, in particular those connected to the twice-ruled-legal Rojadirecta, he told TorrentFreak that he’d deliberately built on the famous words of Martin Niemöller to inspire people to stand up for themselves on the Internet.
“Niemöller’s reasoning is why I am going to provide a simple list of actions that should serve as a guide for any internet business looking to stay safe in light of ever more harsh copyright measures, born only for the interest of a small group of (mostly) American companies,” SearchFreak explained.
So, without further delay, here they are.
1: Avoid registering domains that are handled by VeriSign or Afilias.
VeriSign operates .com, .net, .cc, .name and .tv while Afilias operates .info, .org, .mobi, .in, .me, .aero and more. If certain SEO or brand related issues are holding you back from avoiding these TLDs, I have my own experience to share to the contrary. Google will not punish your site if you have a .ch or .eu extension.
2: Avoid using a US-based domain registrar.
Do not choose the traditional GoDaddy’s of the USA. Please choose a Spanish, German, Dutch, Romanian or even Chinese registrar for your domains. Recent evidence shows that courts in the US will order companies like GoDaddy to hand over your domains without even notifying you.
3: Avoid hosting your site with US companies.
While you risk losing a domain name, you also risk being taken offline by, for example, an erroneous/competitor-directed or even justified DMCA request sent to your hosting provider. There are many examples where rights holders do more wrong than right, where entire websites are shut down because of a single post or message.
If you care about your Internet business, you understand that even one day offline can cause a ripple effect that can take a month to recover from. Receive a penalty from Google and repeat customers can presume your site is down and shift to a competitor.
4: Avoid incorporating as a US business. No more Delaware.
Even if you are a US citizen, you can safely choose other jurisdicti...
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http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-stop-domain-names-being-seized-by-the-us-government-110205/
