Police Request For Website Closure Powers Causes Concern

Concerns have been raised over a request by the police for the power to close down Internet domains which are used for illegal purposes.

The police have asked the UK’s Internet registry Nominet to change the terms under which sites operate in the .uk domain, so they can be closed down for acting illegally, but commentators have warned that this would mean businesses could be closed down before any crime has been proven.

The Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has tabled a plan under which Nominet could close down domain names when the police have reasonable grounds to believe they are involved in criminal activity, According to the BBC. Apparently there is currently no contractual ban on using .uk domain names for illegal purposes, making such closures impossible.

Nominet is forming an “issue group” to consult and get people’s opinions before any final decision is made, on issues such as the formal nature of requests for suspension, whether an appeals process is necessary, and what information and support might be needed from the industry.

No Current Powers

“Nominet does not have any clear obligation in its registrant Terms and Conditions that a domain name should not be used in connection with any activity that would constitute an offence under UK criminal law,” said a Nominet statement (PDF file). “This is in contrast to many registrars and a number of registries including .org and .biz.”

“We believe that formal policy advice is needed to underpin proposals for a change to Nominet’s Terms and Conditions to give a contractual basis to suspend domains where Nominet has reasonable grounds to believe they are being used to commit a crime (e.g. a request from an identified UK Law Enforcement Agency),” it said.

Despite the lack of a formal process, some domains have already been closed down. Nominet revealed that worked with the authorities to suspend over 1,200 domain names that were being used for criminal activity (allegedly counterfeiting) in December 2009.

In these cases, Nominet worked on a request from the Police Central eCrime Unit, but it seemed there was no court or judicial involvement in the process. According to Out-law.com, Nominet used an unrelated contractual technicality to cut the criminal sites off.

Judicial oversight needed?

“We were approached by the Police Central E-Crime Unit, which is a division of The Met, and asked to take down about 1,200 .uk domain names that were involved or under investigation for criminal activity,” said Eleanor Bradley, Nominet’s head of operations told Out-Law Radio at the time. “The Met asked us to take these domain names out of action so we suspended them, meaning that the websites were no longer available but that they couldn’t be re-registered and used again.”

However, there is some concern about the lack of judicial oversight.

“If you are going to do this, then fine, but it needs judicial oversight,” said barrister and IT lawyer David Harris, speaking to the BBC. Harris said that conferring these powers might be better done by updating the Computer Misuse Act instead.

Meanwhile Nick Lockett, a lawyer at DLL specialising in computer law, told the BBC that he was “deeply concerned” about SOCA’s proposal if it meant it could act before a conviction had been secured.

“In a world of online retailing, the ability for a police officer to seize any business, whether that is blocking a domain or seizing the servers – pre-conviction or certainly pre-warrant – would be a dramatic change in the relationship between the police and the internet community,” he told BBC News.

Lockett also warned that caution was needed, because if a legitimate site was closed down, it could leave them open to claims for “massive damages.”

Nominet Appeal

Earlier this month Nominet launched an appeal to find out the identity of the first .uk domain name registered, just over 25 years ago. The .uk domain was created in 1985, and Nominet officially celebrated the domain’s anniversary on 24 July 2010.

Nominet has also previously announced plans to release 2,831 new short .uk domain names, giving companies the chance to bid for single character domains, such as 1.co.uk, and two letter domains, such as aa.co.uk.

According to Nominet, these short domains have previously been held back for technical reasons. However, following a policy review and a public consultation, the domains are now being made available.