A Name the Difference?
The Kentucky Supreme Court has a pretty tough decision to make this month now
that an online casino gambling company named in the case has stepped forward and
clearly identified itself in the case. The state SC ruled in default against all
of the unnamed domain names because the court held that iMEGA, an advocacy
group, did not have the right to represent these online casinos in the court.
Instead, the SC ruled in the case for the state in a way, but noted that the
domain names affected in the case had three weeks to step up and name themselves
– at that point, if an internet gambling company named itself and came forward,
the Kentucky Supreme Court would reopen the court case and make a judgment based
on the new facts.
The question buzzing in the online casino gambling industry though is whether
the addition of a new name in the case is going to make a difference. An
internet gambling group, Yatahay Limited, has stepped forward and agreed to
wholly identify itself to the courts so that the case can proceed and the court
will actually apply Kentucky case law and legislation to the ruling rather than
a default judgment. The online casinos believe that they have a pretty good
chance of winning the case now that Yatahay Limited has identified itself – to
the rest of the world it’s quite clear that the State of Kentucky does not have
the right to seize international domain names.
There is a very really chance that this could be the one minor step needed for
the gambling industry (and all of the other unnamed online casino domain names)
to win the case. Internet censorship is a very serious concern in the global
market and the Kentucky Supreme Court would be taking a very huge step by ruling
in favor of the State, and thus in favor of international domain name
censorship. |