
Best TLD that can't be taken down by US/etc? - Andrenid
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"?<p>Just say you wanted a blog where you could post anything you wanted, and host anything you wanted.<p>Assuming you don't care about the branding benefits of a major TLD.
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lancewiggs
.nz justly prides itself on a robust, cheap and fair disputes resolution
service. It's based in New Zealand, a country which is regularly ranked in the
top three least corrupt in the world, and currently number 1.

InternetNZ is an open membership charitable society that is the delegated
country manager for .nz and has the objective to strive for an open and
uncapturable internet.

They delegated the day to day management of .nz to www.dnc.org.nz, who also
run the disputes service (<http://dnc.org.nz/story/drs-home>), while the
register itself is delegated by InternetNZ to www.nzrs.net.nz. This structure
was set up to ensure that these sorts of issues would be resolved
appropriately.

I note that the new gTLDs (.whatever) will need to use ICANN's standard
dispute resolution process, which is convoluted, lengthy and expensive. I do
not know how these will fare under SOPA et al.

(I'm an elected Councillor of InternetNZ. <http://internetnz.net.nz>)

~~~
mhansen
FYI to people considering .nz: WHOIS Privacy is not allowed in .nz.

I'm very happy with my .nz domain, but it's lame that I have to have my home
address in a publicly accessible database.

~~~
taf2
use a PO box? unless there are some downsides, like ssl cert issuers not
issuing for PO box?

this looks easy enough:
<https://poboxes.usps.com/poboxonline/search/landingPage.do>

I'd assume other countries provide something similar?

~~~
JS_startup
PO boxes are not a legitimate solution for someone needing total anonymity.
Anyone can fill out a request for boxholder information form to find out the
identity of the person who registered it.

edit: The USPS will provide this info no questions asked, no subpoena or court
order required.

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dsl
Outside the reach of the US pretty much means countries with hostile
diplomatic relations. Any safety you might be afforded by other countries (say
New Zealand or Sweden) depends on if you are worth someone in DC picking up a
telephone. A quick check over at the State Department website gives us a few
candidates:

    
    
      Belarus - Nope. Most of the DNS infrastructure is hosted in US friendly countries (Poland, Russia, etc.)
      Burma (Myanmar) - Nope. Getting a domain requires being friendly with the government.
      Cuba - Nope. Requires physical presence in Cuba.
      Democratic Republic of the Congo - Nope. Registration open to anyone, but DNS servers are in the US(!), Sweden, Republic of South Africa.
      Iran - Maybe. Generally open for registration, and one of the more tech savvy sanctioned countries. Don't mention politics, religion, porn, or any other sensitive topics and you should be ok.
      Libya - Nope. Democracy is on it way, please allow 6-8 weeks for shipping.
      North Korea - Nope. Must have presence in country for registration. All infrastructure and management actually takes place in Thailand.
      Syria - Maybe. Hosted and managed in country, but a shitstorm is on the horizon.

~~~
soult
You just listed the countries where your domain is most likely to be seized by
the government. Well, maybe add UAE and Saudi Arabia for completeness' sake.

I don't think a call from Washington DC to any country is enough to shut down
domains, otherwise, what would the US need SOPA for?

~~~
doobie
He actually listed countries that are highly unlikely to cave to pressure from
the US. This list, by design, is comprised of what you might call less than
friendly hosts.

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keane
Maybe Switzerland's .ch/.li - info at
<https://www.nic.ch/reg/index/view.html?lid=en>

You might note that .ch/.li is used by a number of controversial sites at the
moment such as:

    
    
      1channel (.ch)
      Anonops IRC (.li, also .lc)
      Encyclopædia Dramatica (.ch) (IRC used by LulzSec, IRCop arrested)
      Wikileaks (.ch, used when EveryDNS disabled .org)
      Putlocker (.ch, mirror of .com)
      Quicksilverscreen (.ch)
    

See this article about pressure from the US and French governments on .ch
(Switch) to censor WL, which they refused:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/04/wikileaks-
site-s...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/04/wikileaks-site-swiss-
host-switch)

WIPO has assembled links to various ccTLD's policies; here is their page for
.ch <http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/cctld/ch/index.html>

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Benares
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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_international_related_rights_treaties)
and
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_internationa...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_international_copyright_treaties)

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/>

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nextparadigms
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.

~~~
178
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>

~~~
c1sc0
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>

~~~
jcdavis
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.

~~~
178
you can also use 1984.is, an icelandic free dns provider. nice guys, too.

~~~
dataminer
Have you used their vps service? If you have please comment on its
reliability, seems very competitively priced. According to wikipedia 100% of
Iceland electricity is produced from renewable sources. I am tempted to move
most of my servers to Iceland.

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joejohnson
.onion

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

~~~
justindocanto
.onion is not a TLD. I've seen it classified as a "psuedo TLD" but either
way.... dot onion would be a horrible substitute to anything mentioned in the
comments. the user base for tor/oninion is catastrophically smaller and the
requirements to view a .onion site reaches a little further than the general
public can take. think of how many people don't even realize there's VERSIONS
of internet explorer and have never upgraded. _cringes_

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thebigshane
[<http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page>]

    
    
       What is Namecoin
    
       Namecoin is a peer-to-peer generic name/value datastore 
       system based on Bitcoin technology (a decentralized 
       cryptocurrency). It allows you to :
    
       Securely register names (domains for example), no 
       possible censorship!
       Trade and transact namecoins, the digital currency NMC. 
    
       Read more about Namecoin.
    
    
       What is Dot-BIT
    
       Dot-BIT, the first project using namecoin, is building a 
       domain name system (DNS) using the .bit TLD. Our goal is 
       to spread .bit domains by providing resources and tools 
       to the community, from developers to end users.
    

[Edit: Perhaps this is being downvoted for not providing any extra information
myself. If you truly want a resource that can't be taken down, then it will
require some technical effort on your part AND your audience: either .onion
hidden services or .bit names, OR just a static IP address.]

~~~
thebigshane
On another note, if the motivation is due to SOPA, then SOPA targets all
foreign domains (not able to take your server down, but prevent other
American's from resolving your domain name -- and I should also not that this
was before today, where they seem to have taken that part out of the bill).

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pestaa
I know a medium-sized site in Hungary, Europe that is in the process of moving
to an .org TLD. They said SOPA couldn't touch that extension, but I'm not
sure. They host content that can be easily argued as copyrighted (by someone
else, of course.)

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justindocanto
i dont have any technical evidence to back this up but i feel like .ru domains
tend to be pretty resilient to US take downs. i've seen so many blatantly
illegal websites and/or hacking scripts hosted on .ru domains that seem to
never go away. granted, i'm sure they also trigger spam filters like crazy.

.nz i could see catching on. there's got to be a much more 'friendly' TLD
though. nz doesn't feel as generic as com/biz/net/org

who controls .mobi?

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

~~~
joelrunyon
Who controls .me?

~~~
ashconnor
A company called doMEn (domain.me) based in Montenegro.

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

