The shutdown of a Canadian billionaire's online gambling Web site shows the U.S. government is willing to assert its legal authority over Internet properties outside American boundaries – even those based in Canada, a Toronto domain name registrar warns.

Saskatchewan-born Calvin Ayre, 50, and three of his associates were charged Tuesday with allegedly operating an online gambling site, a practice outlawed in the U.S. in 2006. The charges were filed in a federal court in Maryland.

The Bodog case means Canadian-owned Web sites with a .com, .net or .org suffix could be subject to U.S. laws simply because the registry for those domains (in the case of .com and .net, Verisign) is based on American soil, Jetkovic said.

“This is a concern for every non-American who relies on a domain run by a U.S.-based registry operator,” he said.

Although it appears that Bodog.com went through a Vancouver company called Domainclip to register its domain, all .com sites in the world are ultimately overseen by Reston, Va.-based Verisign, Jeftovic said.

But the Bodog case isn't anything new, it's just a high-profile example of the U.S. state enforcing international Internet laws that already exist, said Byron Holland, president and CEO of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority in Ottawa.
“This type of thing has certainly happened before,” Holland said. “The primary implication is that people need to be educated about where their digital content is being housed, created or registered.”

American laws also apply to Canadian-owned sites and Web content if the domain is hosted or has its data stored by a company based in the U.S., Holland added: “It's not just where the server resides but any of those touch points along the way.”

By the same principle, a U.S.-owned site is subject to Canadian laws if its domain is registered or hosted here, Holland said.

To illustrate that Bodog isn't the first foreign site to run afoul of U.S. laws, Holland cited the case of RojaDirecta.com. Even though the live sports streaming Web site is based in Spain, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency successfully seized its domain address last year because it had a .com domain, thus subject to U.S. law. The site was taken down over allegations it was streaming copyrighted SuperBowl content over the Internet.

The Bodog shutdown made big news out of old, existing legislative parameters just because Ayre lives a flashy existence, Holland suggested.

“Any time you mix sex, money and gambling into it, it will highlight the story.”

Ayre, the son of pig farmers, graced the cover of Forbes magazine's annual billionaires issue in 2006 and is known for a jet-setting lifestyle that includes partying with the likes of heiress Paris Hilton.

Source from:http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=66320

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