All Your Domain Names Belong To Virginia

from the well-that-solves-that-matter dept

A very interesting article looks at the results of some lawsuits that haven't received very much attention, but could have quite an impact. It seems that a District Court has ruled that all domain names are really property in the state of Virginia, since they're registered into a database that is in Virginia. Thus, if someone decides to sue your domain name (as opposed to suing you, who owns the domain name) for copyright or trademark infringement, the Virginia courts have jurisdiction, and you (assuming you don't live in Virginia) are suddenly an "absentee property owner". The article discusses the implications of such things, especially for those outside the US.