Thing is, moving locations isn't going to help. When you're operating on the web that's you're neighborhood and a change of domain name won't keep this from happening again nor will it make it harder or less pleasant for them to do.
Maybe we should pass some more laws to solve the problem... (I hope I don't have to clarify that that last bit was sarcasm)
Ah yes, because the internet is the .com's and the united states owns the internet.
You might want to check your assumptions before stating something with that much certainty. There are, occasionally, things outside your borders worth thinking about.
US registrars do register foreign domains. If a US based registrar gives you a .de domain and the Feds ask your registrar to shut down your site I wouldn't be surprised if they did regardless of which registry controls the domain.
It's comforting to think that you're safe outside the US but you aren't. The US government is running a global empire. We may know the Internet is international but as far as the US is concerned they think they own it. When the US is no longer the power it is (and though it may seem prime to fall it is still a superpower) we won't be safe. All we can do is hope that whoever we register with is willing to put up a fight but not all countries are.
Besides that theres more than just the TLD to think about. It's the registrar, registry, your residence, and, if applicable, the location your company is registered. Unless you pay careful attention to all those details there will be a way to shut you down.
I completely agree, but there is quite a practical difference between a .com registered through godaddy and hosted there and the many safer alternatives.
I was more annoyed by this part of the parent: "...won't keep this from happening again nor will it make it harder or less pleasant for them to do"
It's comforting to think that you're safe outside the US but you aren't. The US government is running a global empire. We may know the Internet is international but as far as the US is concerned they think they own it. When the US is no longer the power it is (and though it may seem prime to fall it is still a superpower) we won't be safe. All we can do is hope that whoever we register with is willing to put up a fight but not all countries are.
I wonder if the US government can require certain hooks from ICANN.....
What I wonder is if, or when, ICANN will start taking the US government to court, preferably in countries outside the USA, for violating the laws of those countries.
If ICANN does nothing, and nobody does anything to stop this, it will destroy the internet. (And there's no obvious white knight. The UN I trust even less than the US government.)
Right, I mean if this stuff is already happening then what are your options? You're right to not trust the UN. The UN might as well be the fourth branch of the US government - the branch that allows the US to order other countries around while still maintaining plausible deniability.
Can you recommend a foreign registrar? I'm with a US Based one that started out great, but has been acquired twice now, by increasingly less relevant sounding businesses.
I've been looking for a foreign based registrar, preferably in the EU or iceland, that has really good domain management tools (my biggest problems with registrars are twofold- first many of them seem like fly by night operations, and the second is that their tools for managing domains are often very poor.)
#2 = http://www.domaindiscount24.net/ - in Germany - the registrar for thepiratebay.org - that didn't shut it down despite many threats. Their domain management tools are ugly and cluttered, but work well once you get used to it.
... also ...
#3 = http://www.hover.com/ - in Canada - the retail front-end to OpenSRS/Tucows - a great reputable company around since 1994.
Maybe we should pass some more laws to solve the problem... (I hope I don't have to clarify that that last bit was sarcasm)