Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#1

Post by Andrenid » Sun, Jan 15, 2012, 11:21 PM UTC

This is purely hypothetical (I'm way too vanilla to actually have a use for this), but me and a friend were wondering... considering the US now lays claim to any .com domain as their own jurisdiction, and also considering how many domains are getting taken down lately for "arguable" offences, which TLD would you use to have a site that is "safe"?

Just say you wanted a blog where you could post anything you wanted, and host anything you wanted.

Assuming you don't care about the branding benefits of a major TLD.

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#2

Post by foxylad » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 12:13 AM UTC

For this audience? Gotta be *.geek.nz.

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#3

Post by nextparadigms » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 12:14 AM UTC

Maybe the one from Iceland. You'll need a country that doesn't bow easily to US, but also doesn't have its own laws for easily taking down domains either. You might find blockaid.me useful, too.

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#4

Post by 178 » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 12:25 AM UTC

nextparadigms wrote: post #3

Maybe the one from Iceland. You'll need a country that doesn't bow easily to US, but also doesn't have its own laws for easily taking down domains either. You might find blockaid.me useful, too.

ISNIC, in charge with *.is, sez: "Under what circumstances would ISNIC close or delete the domain wikileaks.is based on the contents of their website?

The answer is simple, such an action would require a formal court order from an Icelandic court. ISNIC has never been handed such a verdict about any .is-domain during its close to 25 years of history."

http://www.isnic.is/en/news/view?id=204

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#5

Post by Benares » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 12:35 AM UTC

First, find a TLD that isn't administered by a company doing business in the U.S. on http://iana.org/

If relevant to your domain's future content, optionally consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_internationa... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_internationa...

Then register your domain(s) with an ethical registrar that does not do business in the U.S. and will only respond to court orders in their own country.

A possible option would be http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/st.html through http://www.nic.st/ . The company (Bahnhof) has a vocal history of protecting it's clients against corporate depredations; see http://www.thelocal.se/18882/20090416/

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#6

Post by ashconnor » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 12:41 AM UTC

The trend in piracy sites is to register .ru/.me of their chosen domain name.

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#7

Post by c1sc0 » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 12:58 AM UTC

178 wrote: post #4

nextparadigms wrote: post #3

Maybe the one from Iceland. You'll need a country that doesn't bow easily to US, but also doesn't have its own laws for easily taking down domains either. You might find blockaid.me useful, too.

ISNIC, in charge with *.is, sez: "Under what circumstances would ISNIC close or delete the domain wikileaks.is based on the contents of their website? The answer is simple, such an action would require a formal court order from an Icelandic court. ISNIC has never been handed such a verdict about any .is-domain during its close to 25 years of history." http://www.isnic.is/en/news/view?id=204

One of the reasons why I chose a .is domain for my personal blog. A few gotchas though: registering a .is domain takes a while (think days/weeks instead of minutes) and your TTL needs to be high. http://fr.anc.is

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#8

Post by joejohnson » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 1:12 AM UTC

.onion

https://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-hidden-service.html.en

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#9

Post by walrus » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 1:17 AM UTC

c1sc0 wrote: post #7

178 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ISNIC, in charge with *.is, sez: "Under what circumstances would ISNIC close or delete the domain wikileaks.is based on the contents of their website? The answer is simple, such an action would require a formal court order from an Icelandic court. ISNIC has never been handed such a verdict about any .is-domain during its close to 25 years of history." http://www.isnic.is/en/news/view?id=204

One of the reasons why I chose a .is domain for my personal blog. A few gotchas though: registering a .is domain takes a while (think days/weeks instead of minutes) and your TTL needs to be high. http://fr.anc.is

What does TTL stand for in this context?

Re: Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc?

#10

Post by jcdavis » Mon, Jan 16, 2012, 1:21 AM UTC

c1sc0 wrote: post #7

178 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ISNIC, in charge with *.is, sez: "Under what circumstances would ISNIC close or delete the domain wikileaks.is based on the contents of their website? The answer is simple, such an action would require a formal court order from an Icelandic court. ISNIC has never been handed such a verdict about any .is-domain during its close to 25 years of history." http://www.isnic.is/en/news/view?id=204

One of the reasons why I chose a .is domain for my personal blog. A few gotchas though: registering a .is domain takes a while (think days/weeks instead of minutes) and your TTL needs to be high. http://fr.anc.is

I don't remember having a high registration time for my .is domain, although its possible I just forgot.

The only gotcha I would mention if you go through isnic is that you need to have your own DNS servers, and they have to be registered with ISNIC with a NIC handle (and some other things?). I just use Linode's DNS servers (where I host it), and haven't had any issues.