Alex Hern reports on the uncomfortable fact that US law now seems to apply to everywhere online, no matter where you actually are
Last week, US cops seized the domain name of a Canadian gambling website, giving the unbelievable excuse that:
Sports betting is illegal in Maryland, and federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law simply because they are located outside the country.
To clarify: You can’t flout US law simply by not being in the country. It is hard to view this act as anything short of America claiming jurisdiction over the entire internet, whether or not the company is itself from the US.
As the easyDNS blog reports:
At the end of the day what has happened is that US law (in fact, Maryland state law) as been imposed on a .com domain operating outside the USA, which is the subtext we were very worried about when we commented on SOPA.
Even though SOPA is currently in limbo, the reality that US law can now be asserted over all domains registered under .com, .net, org, .biz and maybe .info (Afilias [the company which runs the .info domain] is headquartered in Ireland but operates out of the US).
This is no longer a doom-and-gloom theory by some guy in a tin foil hat. It just happened.
The ramifications of this are no less than chilling and every single organization branded or operating under .com, .net, .org, .biz etc needs to ask themselves about their vulnerability to the whims of US federal and state lawmakers (not exactly known their cluefulness nor even-handedness, especially with regard to matters of the internet).
The wave of sites which went dark in protest over the stop online piracy act (SOPA) included several British ones, including Liberal Conspiracy; but this latest move demonstrates that, at least online, what America wants, America gets.
See also:
• How we sold off the right to protest to the one per cent – Alex Hern, November 3rd 2011
• The privatisation of public space is harming our ability to protest – Alex Hern, October 30th 2011
• Despite Mosley’s court defeat, press freedom remains under attack – Michael Harris, May 11th 2011
• The CPS, judiciary and Yasmin Alibhai Brown just don’t get Twitter – Michael Harris, November 13th 2010
• New Bill will drag libel laws from the 19th century into the 21st – Michael Harris, June 2nd 2010
22 Responses to “If you’re online, you’re in America, as far as US cops are concerned”
Nick
The underlying issue is whether the people and entities involved in this case were providing internet gambling services to individuals in the USA – and seeking to avoid the prohibition on internet gambling by basing their servers etc. in Canada. I am not aware of the US authorities interfering with companies in the UK (using .com etc domains) who provide internet gambling to individuals in the UK.
By analogy – would you say that it was alright for persons selling child porn over the internet to individuals in the UK to avoid the impact of UK criminal law merely by locating their servers in a lawless jurisdiction outside the UK?
eric the hamster
RT @leftfootfwd: If you're online, you're in America, as far as US cops are concerned: http://t.co/otk7Dbmj by @alexhern #extradition ?
kannaniyyer
RT @leftfootfwd: If you're online, you're in America, as far as US cops are concerned: http://t.co/otk7Dbmj by @alexhern #extradition ?
ContentiousMoi
RT @leftfootfwd: If you're online, you're in America, as far as US cops are concerned: http://t.co/otk7Dbmj by @alexhern #extradition ?
Amanda Fessenden
If you're online, you're in America, as far as US cops are concerned: http://t.co/6GgiE6pC