The United States government with the help of a US registrar lays down the law, whilst Big Brother remains vigilant in the United Kingdom.
When the domain name jotform.com was suspended by the US Secret Service more than 500,000 innocent people paid the price for the crime of a single user. Wednesday, February 15, the US Secret Service ordered the domain name registrar GoDaddy to suspend the domain name jotform.com. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have previously seized domain names without warning for hosting music, live sports streaming, movies or child pornography. What does JotForm offer? It helps customers create online forms to embed in their websites, customers that include web hosting companies, universities, schools, etc.
David vs GoLiath
Following the order from the US government, the domain name registrar GoDaddy suspended the site for suspected spam and abuse, blocking two million online forms thus creating havoc for over 500,000 JotForm customers and untold damage to JotForm’s reputation. JotForm immediately migrated all files to jotform.net restoring access to their customers. Yes, this new site carries the same ‘dodgy’ content, yet remains live with no threat of suspension. JotForm suspected a user of uploading a phishing form missed by the Bayesian filter they run, 2011 saw 65,000 accounts suspended, but the company remains in the dark having received no information with regard the suspension.
Unfortunate consequences for GoDaddy are that JotForm has subsequently moved its domain names to a new registrar.
Across the water, Big Brother goes by the name of SOCA!
In the United Kingdom a similar event occurred when in February 2012 SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) seized the domain name rnbxclusive.com, a website offering often unpublished music for download. No court order was issued and it is a domain name registered under the gTLD.com controlled by American registry Verisign, yet SOCA was able to block the .COM domain name and post its own inflammatory page on the website stating, “The individuals behind this website have been arrested for fraud”.
SOCA claims RnBXclusive made available music files stolen from artists, allegedly 70,000 per day for download, causing the music industry a huge loss of approximately 15 million pounds per year. Be afraid, with SOCA no one escapes, it goes on to threaten users of the site with a possible prison sentence of ten years plus an unlimited fine under UK law. Be very afraid, the original SOCA page displays the user’s IP address, browser name, operating system, and date and time of connection to the site.
Big Brother is watching, and will catch you.
The original SOCA page has since been replaced with a less menacing message stating simply “SOCA took control of this domain name”, but the threat remains.
When the domain name jotform.com was suspended by the US Secret Service more than 500,000 innocent people paid the price for the crime of a single user. Wednesday, February 15, the US Secret Service ordered the domain name registrar GoDaddy to suspend the domain name jotform.com. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have previously seized domain names without warning for hosting music, live sports streaming, movies or child pornography. What does JotForm offer? It helps customers create online forms to embed in their websites, customers that include web hosting companies, universities, schools, etc.
David vs GoLiath
Following the order from the US government, the domain name registrar GoDaddy suspended the site for suspected spam and abuse, blocking two million online forms thus creating havoc for over 500,000 JotForm customers and untold damage to JotForm’s reputation. JotForm immediately migrated all files to jotform.net restoring access to their customers. Yes, this new site carries the same ‘dodgy’ content, yet remains live with no threat of suspension. JotForm suspected a user of uploading a phishing form missed by the Bayesian filter they run, 2011 saw 65,000 accounts suspended, but the company remains in the dark having received no information with regard the suspension.
Unfortunate consequences for GoDaddy are that JotForm has subsequently moved its domain names to a new registrar.
Across the water, Big Brother goes by the name of SOCA!
In the United Kingdom a similar event occurred when in February 2012 SOCA (Serious Organised Crime Agency) seized the domain name rnbxclusive.com, a website offering often unpublished music for download. No court order was issued and it is a domain name registered under the gTLD.com controlled by American registry Verisign, yet SOCA was able to block the .COM domain name and post its own inflammatory page on the website stating, “The individuals behind this website have been arrested for fraud”.
SOCA claims RnBXclusive made available music files stolen from artists, allegedly 70,000 per day for download, causing the music industry a huge loss of approximately 15 million pounds per year. Be afraid, with SOCA no one escapes, it goes on to threaten users of the site with a possible prison sentence of ten years plus an unlimited fine under UK law. Be very afraid, the original SOCA page displays the user’s IP address, browser name, operating system, and date and time of connection to the site.
Big Brother is watching, and will catch you.
The original SOCA page has since been replaced with a less menacing message stating simply “SOCA took control of this domain name”, but the threat remains.