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2020 (6) TMI 818 - HC - Indian LawsRegistration of fake and fraudulent domain names - seeking to ensure the continued suspension of and block access to fraudulent domain names - HELD THAT:- The internet is a network of networks. Every machine linked to any network has an IP address. Internet service providers assign these IP addresses and these may be static or dynamic (changing with each login). When this happens, the login being provided by an ISP, it is always possible to determine the country where the login originates. An 'access blocking' instructions only serves to block access to a remote website or server (possibly overseas) from an IP address of domestic origin, i.e. from the country ordering the block. Any such 'block' is easily circumvented by masking the originating country IP of the user. He or she only needs to use any of the commonly available VPN products. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. A VPN user establishes a secure connection to another network over the internet, thus by-passing region-restrictions, shielding browsing activity and so on - the access to such bypassing technology is still not common, and the average user may not know about it or even how to use it. But VPN products are available for mobile phone platforms as well now. Therefore, other than lulling an applicant into a completely hollow and faux sense of safety (and conceivably giving some ill-informed government functionary an entirely unwarranted sense of power or authority), blocking access achieves next to nothing. A 'continued suspension' is therefore not possible or practicable at least in the current technology - Upon that end of registration period, there is a further period of two to three weeks as a cooling-off period for the registrant to apply for re-registration in case the registration has inadvertently lapsed. Obviously, that cooling-off period would also be covered by the present order. However, once the domain name is released from registration by one domain name registrar then it is released worldwide across the entire cyber system and network of the internet. This means that any person can then attempt and will succeed in getting a registration through any other registrar or even the very same registrar by a process that is entirely automated and requires no manual intervention - it is therefore not possible to allow the prayer to include the words 'ensure continue suspension of and block access to'. This will conceivably put the Defendant No. 1 in a state of being constantly in threat of contempt proceedings. Therefore, those words will be excluded. Disclosure of registrant information from Endurance Domains, GoDaddy and Porkbun as also from the .in registry and NEIE in respect of the offending registration - HELD THAT:- Relief granted only against Endurance Domains, GoDaddy and Porkbun, not against the .in registry and NEIE. So far as Endurance Domains, GoDaddy and Porkbun are concerned, this is a matter that should lend itself to a structured resolution that would result in no longer requiring these parties to continue as party defendants to the Suit. What needs to be established is a working protocol within the limits of what the technology can do and what the law permits. Application disposed off.
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