ACLU, EFF and CDT File Amicus Brief In Kentucy Domain Seziure Case

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Three civil libertarian groups, unassociated with the domain industry or the gambling industry, joined together to file an Amicus (friend of the court) brief with the Kentucky Appeals Court, (pdf file) on the Domain seizure action.

The Brief was filed by the ACLU of Kentucky, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

The brief makes several key points.

First the seizure order is over broad, and would  infringe on the first amendment right of the domain owners and the public at large.

Geofiltering is an expensive and over burdensome process that would cause business around the world to go out of business if it was required.

The trial court violated the commerce clause to the Constitution as it is trying to regulate sites that are available in all other 49 states and the rest of the world.

The trial court has not established nor can it establish it has jurisdiction over domain registrars not located in Kentucky.

We applaud this groups for coming forward and taking a stand.

We questioned a month ago where the ACLU was in all of this and now they are in the mix

Congrats.

It’s a very well reasoned and well written brief and you should take 1/2 hour out of your day to read and understand the issues, as one of your domains maybe taken by some jurisdiction next.

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  3. Damir says

    Nice One – The trial court violated the commerce clause to the Constitution as it is trying to regulate sites that are available in all other 49 states and the rest of the world.

    The trial court has not established nor can it establish it has jurisdiction over domain registrars not located in Kentucky.

  4. Steve M says

    Great info; thanks Mike.

    Everyone should save a copy of this amicus for their possible future personal use, as it will save time and money if you ever need to hire a law firm to protect your domain rights.

  6. Lda says

    Excellent post. Thanks.

    Sound advice Steve M. The document is a ‘silver lining’ to previously bleak portents, and justifies archiving for future reference.