Free Talk Live

BLUFF CITY, Tenn. – Brian McCrary found the perfect venue to gripe about a $90 speeding ticket when he went to the Bluff City Police Department’s website, saw that its domain name was about to expire, and bought it right out from under the city’s nose.

The domain seizures by the United States authorities in recent days and upcoming legislation that could make similar takeovers even easier in the future, have inspired a group of enthusiasts to come up with a new, decentralized and BitTorrent-powered DNS system. This system will exchange DNS information through peer-to-peer transfers and will work with a new .p2p domain extension.

The domain seizures by the United States authorities in recent days and upcoming legislation that could make similar takeovers even easier in the future, have inspired a group of enthusiasts to come up with a new, decentralized and BitTorrent-powered DNS system. This system will exchange DNS information through peer-to-peer transfers and will work with a new .p2p domain extension.

Ron Paul recently stated on a radio show he wished to rightfully own his Ronpaul.com domain name. After hearing this, the current registrants of Ronpaul.com contacted Paul with a large demand for cash saying they do not wish to vacate easily from the lucrative domain without substantial payment. This unlawful act dealing with celebrity domains has forced Ron Paul's lawyers to begin a cyber-squatting legal challenge, using the proper channels, against these domain squatters.

Florida Highway Patrol illegally ticketing motorists who flash their lights to warn of speed traps. Class Action law suit may cost taxpayers millions.

NYPD unveils new high-tech crime tracking system. Each camera can detect consumption of 16 oz. sugary sodas, salt, cigarettes and/or baby formula within a half-mile radius. "We are not your mom and pop's police department anymore," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said describing the Domain Awareness System for reporters. "We are leading the pack."

The sleepy Morses Line border crossing between Vermont and Quebec has fewer than 15,000 vehicle crossings per year. So, naturally, the Department of Homeland Security wants to improve it through property seizure:

It intends to acquire 4.9 acres of border land on a dairy farm owned for three generations by the Rainville family. Last month, the Rainvilles learned that if they refuse to sell the land for $39,500, the government intends to seize it by eminent domain.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has asked Mozilla to remove a simple Firefox extension that redirects visitors from one domain name to another. Why? Because the MafiaaFire Redirector (no, the name isn't subtle) makes it easy for Web surfers to bypass the government's domain name seizures. Mozilla, the foundation that oversees Firefox development, has resisted the request.

"If rightsholders get their way, overseas pirate websites could soon be inaccessible to US users, lose their ability to process US credit cards, and be banned from Google Adwords. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act is back this week in the US Senate."

This part is particularly ominous:

"A service provider, as that term is defined in section 512(k)(1) of title 17, United States Code, or other operator of a domain name system server shall take reasonable steps that will prevent a domain name from resolving to that domain name's Internet protocol address."