ORG says Nominet can only suspend domains with court order

The Open Rights Group (ORG), the ISPA and the London Internet Exchange (LINX) have told UK internet domain registry Nominet that they disagree with the draft Issue Group statement on domain name suspensions. This comes after Nominet announced that it had suspended domain names at the request of law enforcement agencies. The groups are calling on Nominet to publish the full details of these suspensions and only want the organisation to suspend domain names after receipt of a court order. The ORG believes that Nominet's current practices violate Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which gives the right for an open fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law. In a statement, Nominet said that it plans to reconvene the issue group set up to discuss the policy process for dealing with domain names used in connection with criminal activity in January 2012. It will look to resolve any differences before submitting its recommendations to the Board.