Iran's internet domains not subject to seizure: US court

Tehran, Nov 15, IRNA - A Washington DC judge has recently ruled it is unlawful and impossible to seize a country’s Internet domain registry as it is not an "asset" that can be seized. A number of victims of a bombing attack in the city of al-Quds in the Occupied lands in 1997 were seeking to seize the web domains of Iran, Syria and North Korea to collect on civil damage claiming the three were supporters of terrorism. Seizure of the internet domains could potentially shut down internet access in those countries. A court in US Virginia State had ruled in 2000 for the seizure of the ".IR" domain in favor of the plaintiffs to get hold of the $109 million in damages awarded to them as a result of the injuries they sustained in the attack which was claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas. The American plaintiffs accused Iran of supporting Hamas. Lawyers of the plaintiffs said last month that they had won a judgment against Iran and were asking for its internet domains. If their efforts succeeded, they could take over the internet domains of Iran. However, John Jeffrey, General Counsel of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) which is in charge of regisrating internet domains, said in a statement that these domains were not assets which could be seized, but "part of a single, global interoperable internet which ICANN serves to help maintain". He said those domains "are not property, and are not 'owned' or 'possessed' by anyone including ICANN, and therefore cannot be seized in a lawsuit". ICANN filed its response in a federal court after being served with orders to recover assets from those three countries from plaintiffs who claimed to win lawsuits against Iran, Syria and North Korea. However, Judge Royce Lamberth of the federal court sided with ICANN, finding that the ccTLDs which belong to Iran, North Korea and Syria cannot be transferred. “A ccTLD, like a domain name, cannot be conceptualized apart from the services provided by these parties,” Judge Lamberth said. In fact he is saying because a ccTLD doesn’t actually exist in physical form, like a house or a car, it isn’t an “asset” that can be seized. ICAAN chief Jeffrey said what Judge Lamberth had said indicated his technical understanding of the internet registration system. Following the ruling of Judge Lamberth, the case would be closed in a near future as there is no more Iranian asset in the US soil to be confiscated by the American plaintiffs. They had even tried, in another aborted attempt, to confiscate some Iranian antiques put on display in exhibitions in universities of Harvard and Chicago. end