State of Kentucky Seizes Control of 141 Domain Names

[mj]

"In a rather interesting (read: insane) decision, a district judge in the State of Kentucky has awarded control of 141 online gambling domain names to the governor of the state. Most of these are hosted offshore, and very few are registered under US domain name registrars, let alone registrars in the State of Kentucky (are there any?). You can check out the press release here, and confirm that the Commonwealth of Kentucky does in fact now 'own' these domain names by performing a WHOIS search on any of the domains listed here."

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/09/25/178253.shtml


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[idn]

Originally Posted by mj

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/09/25/178253.shtml


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Beshear said Kentucky loses tens of million of dollars a year to online gambling, which is illegal in all 50 states. And, he said, the illegal activity has repercussions far exceeding its monetary losses to the Commonwealth:

* Unlicensed Internet gambling significantly undermines and threatens horseracing, Kentucky's signature industry and a key tourism industry, by creating unregulated and untaxed competition;

Now that's funny.

[phio]

Horse Racing = Gambling

Perhaps the Kentucky Derby should move to Las Vegas where gambling IS legal

[idn]

Originally Posted by phio

Horse Racing = Gambling

Perhaps the Kentucky Derby should move to Las Vegas where gambling IS legal

I just find the argument flawed. It was 1 of 4 reasons, did not post the others.

[yanni]

GoDaddy says they didn't turn over the domains requested. Enom is not saying anything.
It seems that Moniker was approached as well (?) but didn't comply.

This is some serious shit going down, your idn-gambling-com could be next.

[mj]

The state of Kentucky has grossly overstepped it's bounds here.

This will be in a Federal court during next week, I'm fairly certain.

.

[yanni]

Of course it'll be the Fed court. And Kentucky will lose.
But watch closely in a couple of years when some enterprising lawmaker will try to push some kind of legislation that will give States the right to swipe your domains under some pretense.