In my initial outrage about the death threat domain names, The other day I dented:
“Corporations aren’t human; if they were, the word would be “Sociopath” as in @GoDaddy is a sociopathic corporation”
But then I decided to follow @jwildeboer‘s fine example and fired off an email to GoDaddy. It is, after all, always good to find out the truth.
Well, seems I was right the first time.
As promised, here’s the email response from GoDaddy, verbatim:
Dear Laurel L. Russwurm,
The domain killassange.com is directing to the IP of 99.14.214.54, which is not an IP allocated to Go Daddy. According to an IP whois it is allocated to Hoosier PC SBC. Go Daddy is not hosting the content. We have neither access to, nor jurisdiction over the content on this site. The web hosting provider for this website is the company responsible for policing any content that appears on this site.
There is no content currenlty resolving on the domains killjulianassange.com and julianassangemustdie.com.
As your complaint addresses the issue of wording of the domain name itself, we are unable to take action at this time. The complaint either needs to be taken up with the domain name owner directly, or should be filed in a UDRP or court proceeding.
If you find that you are unable to contact the registrant because the contact information given in the Whois database is invalid, please write to invalidwhois@secureserver.net and let us know.
Regards,
Spam and Abuse Department
GoDaddy.com
ARID1005
GoDaddy is off the hook for killassange.com because it isn’t one of theirs.
And without content, julianassangemustdie.com could argued to be ambiguous; after all, barring immortality, we all must die sooner or later.
But there is no ambiguity about:
killjulianassange.com
‘Kill Julian Assange’ is a three word grouping that is short, sharp and to the point.
Whatever anyone thinks of the man, Julian Assange is a real person.
A human being.
Prefacing the proper name of a real person with the verb “kill” is most certainly a death threat.
Or at the least, a directive.
Of course, I am not a lawyer. And as a Canadian, I’m not sure if death threats are protected by free speech or qualify as a crime south of the border.
GoDaddy thinks it isn’t an issue.
Does that mean GoDaddy would issue a killpresidentobama.com or a killsarahpalin.com domain name?
Just asking.
Laurel's Free Culture Blog 