5 ms·

This doesn't make any sense. Seizing top-level domains of a country because of terrorism happening in it? Or is it because of state-sponsored terrorism?

jonny_eh 12y ago
These families were hurt by Iran (via Hamas, which is sponsored by Iran) and are trying to exact some kind of legal revenge. In this case it's rather misguided and pointless, but they'll likely take anything they can possibly get.
PhasmaFelis 12y ago
It's not really clear, but the impression that I get is that they want to seize (and sell off) valuable assets to pay off a court-imposed debt, because Iran itself refuses to pay. An analogy would be if I were sued and lost, but moved all my money to a Swiss bank account and skipped the country before the litigants could collect, they could try to seize any cars, real estate, etc. I'd left behind to pay the judgment. It's still pretty ridiculous, of course. I'm not sure how, or if, it's even technically possible to "repossess" a TLD, let alone sell it for cash.
- lotu 12y ago
  It certainly would be technically possible. ICAN would have to alter the records in the root DNS server to point to a new IP address controlled by the family. The family could then extort existing users of the domain for the privilege of retaining their domain name, begin collecting yearly fees from them, or open a new register for anyone that wants .ir domain name. Yes this would be disruptive and quite possibly trigger a split in the DNS records but it is very technically possible. It is also possible the family already knows all this, and don't care. It is conceivable that they aren't after money so much as looking for ways to hurt Iran.
  - AnthonyMouse 12y ago
    > Yes this would be disruptive and quite possibly trigger a split in the DNS records but it is very technically possible. More likely it would trigger a change in how DNS works. The only reason that DNS can work the way it does is that things like this don't happen. ICANN can't force anybody's DNS resolver to point at their root servers. The root servers operate based on consensus. The only reason everyone uses the same ones is that everyone agrees how they should resolve top level domains. As soon as you start forcing decisions using courts and politics you destroy the consensus and blow the whole thing up.
    - rakoo 12y ago
      I'm not sure the whole world would find and aggree on an alternative root that quickly, though.
      - AnthonyMouse 12y ago
        That's actually the problem. You could end up with more than one root. Or dissolution of the root altogether and some free for all for top level domains with whoever can convince Comcast, Google, China or British Telecom to add a top level domain record to their resolvers.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    That would be the end of ICANN. It would be more or less immediately replaced by a distributed system and rightly so. Russia would be one of the parties supporting such a decentralized system, China quite possibly as well and even the US would probably not want a judgement in favor of the plaintiffs in this case.
    - kghose 12y ago
      All the easier to feed the correct information to subjugated subjects.
  - calgoo 12y ago
    And then Iran just keeps the DNS and IP entries active in their country anyways so that its people can keep on using those resources. And i doing so, we have broken the internet. This is why an organization that manages something as important as IP addresss distribution and Domain management, can NOT be part of 1 country. Why does 4 families and a judge have the power to basically kill all internet access in a country, because someone got killed, no matter how they died.
nraynaud 12y ago
It's part of a concerted push to go legally after everything with a link to Palestine. There are lawyers going after every Arab owned house in Israel too, looking for every mean to expel them legally: a typo in the property act, a construction code problem, any detail is good. They are also going after the arabic banks that provide assistance to victims of Israeli retaliations. If someone in the family does anything against Israel, they destroy the family houses without any legal process, and some arabic States are providing welfare to those newly homeless families.
- ars 12y ago
  Wrong country.
  - nraynaud 12y ago
    which one did I get wrong? they were injured in Jerusalem, and they are trying to reach Iran through a connection with Hamas.
    - lclarkmichalek 12y ago
      They're trying to seize US based assets of Iran. That doesn't have much to do with evictions in Jerusalem.
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    From the article - The attempt to grab the domains is part of a court case begun by the families of four Americans injured in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997 for which Hamas claimed responsibility.

jonny_eh 12y ago

These families were hurt by Iran (via Hamas, which is sponsored by Iran) and are trying to exact some kind of legal revenge. In this case it's rather misguided and pointless, but they'll likely take anything they can possibly get.

PhasmaFelis 12y ago

It's not really clear, but the impression that I get is that they want to seize (and sell off) valuable assets to pay off a court-imposed debt, because Iran itself refuses to pay. An analogy would be if I were sued and lost, but moved all my money to a Swiss bank account and skipped the country before the litigants could collect, they could try to seize any cars, real estate, etc. I'd left behind to pay the judgment. It's still pretty ridiculous, of course. I'm not sure how, or if, it's even technically possible to "repossess" a TLD, let alone sell it for cash.

lotu 12y ago
It certainly would be technically possible. ICAN would have to alter the records in the root DNS server to point to a new IP address controlled by the family. The family could then extort existing users of the domain for the privilege of retaining their domain name, begin collecting yearly fees from them, or open a new register for anyone that wants .ir domain name. Yes this would be disruptive and quite possibly trigger a split in the DNS records but it is very technically possible. It is also possible the family already knows all this, and don't care. It is conceivable that they aren't after money so much as looking for ways to hurt Iran.
- AnthonyMouse 12y ago
  > Yes this would be disruptive and quite possibly trigger a split in the DNS records but it is very technically possible. More likely it would trigger a change in how DNS works. The only reason that DNS can work the way it does is that things like this don't happen. ICANN can't force anybody's DNS resolver to point at their root servers. The root servers operate based on consensus. The only reason everyone uses the same ones is that everyone agrees how they should resolve top level domains. As soon as you start forcing decisions using courts and politics you destroy the consensus and blow the whole thing up.
  - rakoo 12y ago
    I'm not sure the whole world would find and aggree on an alternative root that quickly, though.
    - AnthonyMouse 12y ago
      That's actually the problem. You could end up with more than one root. Or dissolution of the root altogether and some free for all for top level domains with whoever can convince Comcast, Google, China or British Telecom to add a top level domain record to their resolvers.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  That would be the end of ICANN. It would be more or less immediately replaced by a distributed system and rightly so. Russia would be one of the parties supporting such a decentralized system, China quite possibly as well and even the US would probably not want a judgement in favor of the plaintiffs in this case.
  - kghose 12y ago
    All the easier to feed the correct information to subjugated subjects.
- calgoo 12y ago
  And then Iran just keeps the DNS and IP entries active in their country anyways so that its people can keep on using those resources. And i doing so, we have broken the internet. This is why an organization that manages something as important as IP addresss distribution and Domain management, can NOT be part of 1 country. Why does 4 families and a judge have the power to basically kill all internet access in a country, because someone got killed, no matter how they died.

nraynaud 12y ago

It's part of a concerted push to go legally after everything with a link to Palestine. There are lawyers going after every Arab owned house in Israel too, looking for every mean to expel them legally: a typo in the property act, a construction code problem, any detail is good. They are also going after the arabic banks that provide assistance to victims of Israeli retaliations. If someone in the family does anything against Israel, they destroy the family houses without any legal process, and some arabic States are providing welfare to those newly homeless families.

ars 12y ago
Wrong country.
- nraynaud 12y ago
  which one did I get wrong? they were injured in Jerusalem, and they are trying to reach Iran through a connection with Hamas.
  - lclarkmichalek 12y ago
    They're trying to seize US based assets of Iran. That doesn't have much to do with evictions in Jerusalem.
- lotsofmangos 12y ago
  From the article - The attempt to grab the domains is part of a court case begun by the families of four Americans injured in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997 for which Hamas claimed responsibility.