Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Californian Democratic Representative Howard Berman has urged those selling domain names to maintain accurate customer records in order to minimise fraudulent or illegal use of the domain names they have purchased and has threatened to introduce new laws if the industry does not better regulate itself.

The scrutiny afforded to the information provided on registration is, at present, minimal. Purchasers will be asked to provide a contact name, e-mail and geographical address and sometimes further details, but these are unlikely to be verified by the company selling the domain name.

Berman said, “without verification we leave the field open for malevolent registrants,” and indicated that if domain name sellers failed to change the situation Congress may intervene to legislate on the matter.

The practicalities of enforcing stringent registration requirements has led to worries that the registration process may become unduly lengthy and burdensome.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.