domains

No judge has ever declared a Firefox plug-in called MafiaaFire Redirector to be illegal. But that didn't stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from trying to censor it from the Web.

The Mozilla Foundation says DHS requested the removal of MafiaaFire, which describes itself as a utility that "automatically redirects you to the correct alternate site" if the main domain has been seized by the U.S. government.

Harvey Anderson, Mozilla's general counsel, told CNET today that the request from DHS was made over the phone. Anderson replied in writing, posing a list of … Read more

When the government seizes a dope dealer's car, it can put the auto up for auction. But what happens when agents seize a Web domain?

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said today that those sites seized for trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods will now serve to help spread the government's message that "unfairly devalue America's contributions, compromise American jobs, and put consumers, families, and communities at risk."

The Obama administration and the U.S. Congress have declared war on online piracy and law enforcement agencies have seized more than 100 sites in the past year. Of those, 65 domain names now direct visitors to a public service announcement. … Read more

Google announced today that it is making it easy for organizations using Google Apps to authenticate outgoing mail so that recipients can rest assured that the messages are really from them and aren't spam.

Administrators of all editions of Google Apps can enable the DomainKeys Identified Mail technology for outgoing mail in the "Advanced Tools" tab of the control panel by checking several boxes. Gmail has supported e-mail signing standards since its inception in 2004, but implementation required more configuration and resources than that.

Functionally, this means fewer legitimate e-mail messages will be blocked by spam filters. … Read more

Binding to an Active Directory or Open Directory domain is done in many work environments to centralize computing usage policies and increase network security. One of the common policies that may be enforced by Active or Open Directory domains is that passwords will need to be changed every so often.

When this happens, the system will warn you in advance of when the password is going to expire, and in some cases you might be bugged continually if the password expiration warning is set at an interval that is close to the domain's requirement for password changes.

For instance, … Read more

Though it's in hot water with the U.S. government, WikiLeaks is being supported by online activists fighting to keep the site alive.

WikiLeaks is being propped up by a barrage of mirror sites created by activists following moves by Amazon to stop hosting its site and Domain Name System provider EveryDNS.net to cut off its DNS services, according to The New York Times. Such mirrors can replicate an entire Web site, ensuring that all content and documents remain online and accessible even if WikiLeaks' own site is taken down.

But some of WikiLeaks supporters are adopting a … Read more

Comcast customers in Illinois and three other nearby states lost their Internet access last night, apparently due to the same problem that took down service for East Coast customers just a week ago.

Reports first began showing up on Twitter, with Comcast customers in several Midwest states tweeting that their connections were down. Comcast's own Twitter account, Comcastcares, later confirmed that the outage was affecting people in Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan and seemed to be Domain Name System (DNS) related. The company also said at the time that it was working on a fix.

More specifically, the outage hit … Read more

The U.S. government has launched a major crackdown on online copyright infringement, seizing dozens of Web site domains linked to illegal file sharing and counterfeit goods.

The domains of torrent sites that link to illegal copies of music and movie files and sites that sell counterfeit goods were seized this week by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security. Visitors to such sites as Torrent-finder.com, 2009jerseys.com, and Dvdcollects.com found that their usual sites had been replaced by a message that said, "This domain name has been seized by ICE--Homeland Security … Read more

Like the New York Yankees and pungent curries, it is not easy to love the Dallas Cowboys.

Somehow, they seem hell bent on proving that everything really is bigger in Texas. Including, some believe, mouths.

They have built a new stadium at which parking is $75 and pizzas a mere $60 (oh, of course they're 20 inches). They constantly seem to act as if they are rather more important than other NFL teams, more important than any other sports team anywhere. Which might make some people curious that the Cowboys have often been referred to as "America's … Read more

The modern world has one immutable law: where the founders of Facebook go, so does the rest of society.

Recently, Dustin Moskovitz and Sean Parker, just two of the characters from "The Social Network," donated $170,000 to assist Proposition 19, a California idea aimed at legalizing pot.

And now I read in The New York Times that, sensing a turning of the tides, or merely a cloud of smoke about to emerge from an important chimney, many people are anticipating pot legalization by buying up pot-related domains.

The Times tells of Kevin Faler, who was once a … Read more