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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Pirate Bay's original .org domain has been suspended over an ICANN domain verification issue [torrentfreak.com].

Pirate Bay's original .org domain was suspended by EuroDNS a few hours ago, after the registrant failed to verify the contact details. Even though it's no longer the main domain name for the site, the bookmark was still in use by many people as a redirect to Pirate Bay's latest home base.

[...] The person managing the domain name has failed to verify the contact details and until this is done the domain name will stop functioning. "This domain name is pending ICANN verification and has been suspended. If you are the owner of this domain you can reactivate this domain by logging into your EuroDNS account," reads the notice that appears.

For the site's users the issue doesn't cause any problems. The Pirate Bay site is still reachable via the .se domain name, which redirects visitors to several other official TPB domain names [torrentfreak.com].

[EXTENDED COPY]

The Register adds [theregister.co.uk]:

The whole verification process was introduced at the behest of law enforcement, which has long been frustrated with the wildly inaccurate Whois system that helps criminals to hide their identities when they register domain names. As a part of agreeing to add the suspension element into their contract, registrars requested that law enforcement provide them with statistics to demonstrate that the policy was indeed helping to tackle crime. Those statistics have been notoriously difficult to get hold of however, leading to some testy exchanges at ICANN's public meetings over the past year. Statistics produced by ICANN's compliance office show that over 80 per cent of the complaints it receives concern "whois inaccuracy."

Critics argue that having a verification process to register a domain name and so get a website up and running is very different from requiring people to respond to an email every year to keep the website up. They also question the logic of asking people to click on links in an email; most sysadmins actively warn users not to do exactly that for risk of being phished or otherwise compromised (and ICANN knows this only too well, having had its systems compromised by this very approach).

The current feeling within the registrar industry is that this domain suspension service is causing constant problems for little or no benefit. Law enforcement – particularly IP lawyers – will no doubt be secretly pleased that the process had taken down The Pirate Bay's website, however.

Previously: ICANN Discussing Policy to Eliminate WHOIS Protection Services for Websites w/ "Commercial Activity" [soylentnews.org]
Privacy Advocates Raise Alarm Over ICANN Proposals to Restrict Anonymous Domain Registrations [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission