A UK domain name registry has convened a meeting to discuss the possibility of introducing U.S.-style domain name seizure policies to .co.uk domain names.
Nominet is meeting with leading lights from the Metropolitan Police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency to ensure it hits stringent government targets on helping the authorities tackle online crime.
If Nominet fails to show it is doing all it can to boost online security in the UK, the non-profit registrar could lose its license and become a publicly owned institution.
Nominet has already shut down a number of allegedly illegal websites, but the organization is hoping to make its seizure policy a permanent fixture.
Commenting on the e-crime meeting, Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, told the Daily Telegraph: “If it goes ahead there should be limits on the types of crime the procedures could be used against.”
“Nominet will need to do something more transparent than just accept investigators’ claims that websites are engaged in criminal activity,” he added.
In the U.S., domain name seizures have caused a mixed reaction, but the director of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency John Morton has stood by the procedure.