Is the .to (Tonga) domain completely rogue and should be removed?
Barry Shein
bzs at world.std.com
Thu Oct 1 23:33:54 UTC 1998
Mueller: You really need to explain your financial interest in all
this before making these pathetic spin attempts.
On October 1, 1998 at 16:09 karl at best.net (Karl Mueller) wrote:
>
> Nobody warned me that Jim Fleming had a brother! Ayeiii....
>
> We now return you to TongaV8, in progress..
>
> Karl
>
> >
> >Not clear. Obviously .to is being run in a very unusual way. Among
> >other things, I guess the spammers can instantly sign up new domains
> >for their web sites as fast as .to can take them down (which isn't
> >very fast, but for discussion's sake.)
> >
> >That's quite unusual, and the entire activity seems to have nothing to
> >do with the Kingdom of Tonga or any entitites within that country
> >except inasmuch as they seem to look the other way and probably get
> >some money for it (others have claimed this.)
> >
> >But the proof is in the pudding, ADULTSIGHTS.COM is finding the way
> >the .to domain is being managed very useful to their mass spamming and
> >other criminal (e.g., domain hijacking) activities.
> >
> >Taken togther, I say that's a problem. What should be done about it is
> >yet another question, of course.
> >
> >Also, I'm not sure I agree with your characterization that businesses
> >etc which have registered a Tongan domain, but have no other
> >relationship with Tonga, are "legitimate".
> >
> >They may be banal, harmless, other than what may well be prima facie
> >evidence of intent to defraud by advertising a business etc in a
> >country they don't actually have any presence in, but that doesn't
> >necessarily make the usage "legitimate".
> >
> >I don't think I'd want to be on the wrong side of a court case, even
> >if unfair, with the other side pointing out that I was doing business
> >via a network address in the Kingdom of Tonga, unless I really had a
> >good reason for doing so other than "I thought the name was cute". The
> >law doesn't tend to look kindly on businesses which purposely
> >obfuscate their identity and whereabouts.
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