ICANN Tells IP Community They Won't Police Piracy Sites

The intellectual property community has been pressuring ICANN to do more to police content online and force registrars to prevent the use of domain names in distributing illegal content online such as piracy websites.

However, in a letter to Greg Shatan, President of the Intellectual Property Constituency, ICANN’s Chair Steve Crocker says ICANN does not police content but will enforce contractual provisions requiring registrars to prohibit registrants “from distributing malware, abusively operating botnets, phishing, piracy, trademark or copyright infringement, fraudulent or deceptive practices, counterfeiting or otherwise engaging in activity contrary to applicable law, and providing (consistent with applicable law and any related procedures) consequences for such activities including suspension of the domain name.”

The letter goes on to say that ICANN will bring enforcement actions against registrars that fail to include the required prohibitions.