Its a questions that many have been asking ever since the first domain name seizures, what will happen to the seized domains?
When the government seizes a drug dealer’s car, after legal means to challenge the seizure expire, it puts the car up for auction, same for Jewelry, Boats, and other seized property.
I assumed that the Feds would eventually do the same with the domains it has seized but today according to Cnet.com, the “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said today that those sites seized for trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods will now serve to help spread the government’s message that “unfairly devalue America’s contributions, compromise American jobs, and put consumers, families, and communities at risk.”
“The Obama administration and the U.S. Congress have declared war on online piracy and law enforcement agencies have seized over a 100 sites in the past year. Of that group, 65 domain names now direct visitors to a public service announcement.”
“There have been over 45 million hits to the seizure banner that notifies visitors that a federal court order has been issued for the domain,” ICE said in a press release.
Personally with the cash crunch the Government has, I think the domain names should be sold off like any other seized asset.
Otherwise the Government should distribute seized cars to Government employees which they can drive around with a car wrapped around with a message that the car was seized.
Lol @ Otherwise the Government should distribute seized cars to Government employees which they can drive around with a car wrapped around with a message that the car was seized.
VALID POINT, I am sitting in class, I HAD TO LMAO. Funny but Valid point!
The government is ascending saying that the domains are too valuable to sell I believe.
I am sure some of the government officers wouldn’t mind driving a Porsche, BMW, Mercedes 😉
Those domains get lots of hits, but I suspect (after checking some domain names) that these are not the standard type-in traffic due to keyword domains, but rather people just knowing the URL as a place to get some free content. Consequently the domain name in itself (without the content) has low value.
Couple of examples:
atdhe.net was seized (illegal streaming site). Interestingly the URL had been shared more than 200,000 times (!) on Facebook.
But what will the sale of this domain bring to the US government? Probably not much.
Same for rojadirecta.com.
Maybe the government could direct the traffic to a page explaining why illegal content is illegal.
Years of being American have taught me there is an upside to the stupidity of government: we can be assured these will go right to drop lists at expiration for drop-catching.
Of course we might have to fight for maintaining possession once the good ol’ gov figures out what happened (typically about 6 months later).
no there is a problem with your assumption…boats,cars,jewelery are all physical properties.
a domain name is an intangible property in a completely different league.intangible property that is tainted which will have a negligible value…the gov is not efficient in nebulous ownership.therefore the lowest common use would be for the gov to spread its message not attempt to acquire more funds on questionable intangible property.
Domain
“gov is not efficient in nebulous ownership”
Sure they are
the government sells oil and gas leases, broadcast spectrum licenses, and other intangible property all the time.
How does the government know the value of a 12 year old boat or pearl earnings?
They hire an appraiser to set a minimal price and send it to auction and let the market determine the value.
Are they going to hire a person to keep track of all the seized domains and renew them?
Is this a good expenditure of taxpayer dollars to renew seized domain so the government can display a message?