Nominet consults on rogue site shutdown proposals

Dot UK registry Nominet has taken a step closer to potentially gaining the power to shut down rogue web sites, after it formally announced the "issue group" that will deal with the proposals.

The group, Dealing with domain names used in connection with criminal activity, was formally proposed by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) in November last year.

It is set to cover a wide and varied range of areas related to potentially changing Nominet's policy on dodgy domains. Currently, unlike fellow registries for .org and .biz, the organisation has no formal obligation to close down sites used in connection with criminal activity

Possible discussion topics include the format of formal requests for suspension, whether safeguards are necessary, and the kind of information and support needed from the industry for law enforcers.

After industry-wide consultation, the group is set to contain stakeholders from across law enforcement, academia, rights groups and domain name companies.

It will be chaired by Ian Walden, professor of information and communications law at the University of London, and also feature members from Soca and the Police Central eCrime Unit.

Other notable members of the group include Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, as well as representatives from the Federation of Small Businesses, Microsoft and the government.

Once the group has formed a proposal on how Nominet policy should change, it will send it to the Nominet board, which will decide on the recommendations.

A background report on the group has also been released which industry stakeholders are encouraged to submit feedback on up until 31 March.