US “Domain Seizures” Threaten Canadian Internet Sovereignty

In a letter addressed to the Canadian government, the CRTC, and the Canadian Internet Regulation Authority (CIRA), Canadian public interest activists, academics, and lawyers -- including OpenMedia.ca's Executive Director, Steve Anderson -- have come together to condemn the US government's practice of "domain seizure" in the past year.

Starting June 10, 2010, the US government began "seizing" domains, or, taking down certain sites and rerouting traffic or communications, of the .com, .net, .org, and the country code top-level domain (e.g. .ca for Canada) registries. Not only has the US government provided dubious evidence in procuring seizure warrants and failed to grant trial process to the domains in question, its seizures have included foreign entities and search engines as well. Thus, as the letter points out, the US' seizures have effectively trumped Canadian sovereignty and created a "digital blockade" of cross-border digital trade. As the letter states:

We respect the right of free nations to take actions consistent with human rights to legitimately decide what their citizens may access or publish on the Internet. In particular, we feel it is the right of the Canadian Government in conformance with Charter rights, to decide what citizens of Canada are allowed to publish or access. The recent seizures by the United States have directly affected this sovereign determination over lawful content in the Canadian jurisdiction.

Therefore, in an effort to safeguard Canadian sovereignty and the rights of its citizens, the signees call on the CIRA, Canadian Parliament, and the CRTC to address these issues and to adopt, and instill the tools to enforce, a "digital sovereignty policy" before December 31, 2011.

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Read the statement »

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