The MISSISSIPPI House Legislature just proposed a bill that would legalize gambling and as part of the bill give the state the power to seize domain names.

The Bill entitled the “MISSISSIPPI LAWFUL INTERNET GAMING ACT”

The Bill would allow all sorts of legalized Internet gambling would subject to heavy licensing, regulation, and taxation and would establish a commission to oversee the gaming

Regarding domain names the Bill provides that the “commission may commence an in rem action against any domain name or names used by an Internet site if:”

“The domain name is used by an Internet site that is:

“Conducting unlawful Internet gambling; and  The commission simultaneously sends a notice of the alleged violation and intent to proceed under this subsection to the registrant of the domain name at the postal and email address provided by the registrant to the registrar, if available, and publishes notice of the action as the court may direct promptly after filing the action.  For purposes of this section, the actions described above shall constitute lawful service of process.”

“In an in rem action commenced against a  domain name shall be deemed to have its situs in the state of Mississippi, provided that:”

“The domain name registrar or registry is located, doing business in, or maintains minimum contacts within the state;”

or

“Documents sufficient to establish control and authority regarding the disposition of the registration and use of the domain name are deposited with the court.”

“If the foregoing does not apply to a particular domain name, the in rem action may be brought in the State of Mississippi to prevent and restrain access to the domain by users located within the state if the domain is accessible from users within the state.”

“Service of court orders shall be made as follows:

“In connection with an order obtained in an action to which subsection b. applies, the commission or law enforcement officer shall serve any court order issued pursuant to this section on the domain name registrar or, if the domain name registrar is not located within the United States, upon the registry.”

“Upon receipt of such order, the domain name registrar or domain name registry shall suspend operation of, and may lock, the domain name; or for nondomestic domains, in connection with an order obtained in an action to which subsection b. applies, the commission or law enforcement officer may serve any court order issued pursuant to this section on entities described below.”

“After being served with an order issued pursuant to this section; and, an Internet service provider, or any other operator of a nonauthoritative domain name system server shall, as expeditiously as possible, take technically feasible and reasonable steps designed to prevent a domain name from resolving to that domain name’s Internet protocol address, except that (a) such entity shall not be required to modify its network or other facilities to comply with such order, to take any steps with respect to domain name lookups not performed by its own domain name system server or to continue to prevent access to a domain name to which access  has been effectively disabled by other means; and (b) nothing in this paragraph shall affect the limitation on an entity’s liability under subsection e. below.”

“A defendant or owner or operator of a domain name subject to the order, or any party required to take action based on the order, may petition the court to modify, suspend, or vacate the order, based on evidence that the Internet site associate  with the domain name subject to the order is no longer, or never was, engaged in unlawful Internet gambling, or the interests of justice require that the order be modified, suspended, or vacated;”

“and A registrar or owner, licensee, or operator of a domain name subject to the order may petition the court to vacate the order based on evidence that the registration of the domain name has expired and the domain name has been re-registered by different party.”