Today a Swedish district court decided that Pirate Bay founder Fredrik Neij no longer can control the domains piratebay.se and thepiratebay.se – as they have been used for “illegal activities”.
However – the court does not give the government control over the domains. They stay with the domain top level administrator, the Punkt.se foundation.
On the one hand, it is strange that domain names can be seized. It is like if a street adress would be seized, because of illegal activities carried out there.
On the other hand, it is interesting that the court does not accept the prosecutors demand for the domain names to be handed over to the Swedish government. This still gives top domain administrators some leverage – and indicates that they are not liable for how a domain is used.
But the most important lesson to be learned from todays verdict is that we need to build a decentralised system for domain names — where they cannot be seized or taken down.
/ HAX
Read more: Key Pirate Bay Domains Must Be Seized, Court Rules »