RuNet is buzzing about censorship: new RU-CENTER registration rules are coming into effect.
Starting today, February 24, 2012, new RU-CENTER domain name registration rules will take effect. The changes affect third-level domains. The main innovation in these domains is that Ru-Center will be able to terminate domain delegations based on its own assessment, without a court or expert decision. These rules have been dubbed the return of censorship in the RuNet.
The new RU-CENTER regulations apply only to second-level domain extensions, such as .spb.ru and .msk.ru. According to the new rules, RU-CENTER may terminate a domain delegation in certain cases, such as to prevent illegal activity or activity that harms third parties.
In particular, the new rules are as follows:
"Amendments to the regulatory documents will be introduced effective February 24, 2012. The changes affect the conditions under which the Registrar may suspend services," a notice appeared on the Ru-Center website. According to the new version of the regulations, the company "has the right to immediately terminate domain delegation in order to prevent illegal activity, as well as activity that causes harm to third parties, including the distribution and advertising of pornographic materials, calls for violence, extremist activity, overthrow of the government, etc."
RU-CENTER emphasizes that the new rules are nothing to worry about: "Firstly, this only applies to third-level domains. The registration rules there were quite liberal, and this was often abused by scammers. Third-level domains contained a great deal of illegal content," the press service asserts. According to company representatives, when they began charging for registration of such domains, the number of delegated domains began to decline, and now stands at around 200,000. "Now, mostly serious websites remain there. The changes to the company's regulations are being introduced as a preventative measure to eliminate future threats."
In addition, the terms of use for domains will include a clause prohibiting users from posting information or software on the site that violates current Russian legislation or the rights of third parties.
RU-CENTER explains that these rules are fully aligned with the new rules for registering domains in the .RU and .РФ zones. Furthermore, the rules will allow the company to protect itself from a number of complaints from human rights organizations and law enforcement agencies, which have become increasingly frequent recently.
According to RU-CENTER representatives, given that registration in such second-level domains was free for a long time, they have become home to numerous websites with illegal content. Philipp Kulin, director of the hosting company "Dremuchiy Les," who has been operating in the market for 10 years, commented to Fontanka:
"For a long time, third-level domains were uncontrolled, effectively enjoying a special status: registration was not only simplified, but also free. Two years ago, when it became clear that uncontrolled domains were a bacchanalia, Sodom and Gomorrah all rolled into one, a decision was made at a meeting of the Coordination Center to cancel the special status for third-level domains. Ru-Center became the registrar that agreed to take geographic domains (of which there are about 200,000) under its wing. According to the regulations, everything had to remain as before for a year, so that domain owners could decide what to do next. After a year, the registrar can do whatever it deems necessary. By that time, Ru-Center becomes the domain administrator and bears full responsibility for the content. "Now they have to sell the rights to own subdomains, despite the fact that they cannot legally enshrine the delegation of responsibility," says Kulin. "There are no longer any rules for delegation. Therefore, if something goes wrong, The masked show will come to ZAO RSIC (the legal entity of Ru-Center), and no one will care who exactly posted what, since, according to the documents, ZAO RSIC is responsible."
In response, many experts note that RU-CENTER's new rules could become a powerful censorship tool, particularly for online media. For this reason, RU-CENTER will be able to easily terminate the delegation of domains belonging to online media. Incidentally, this is precisely why the Echo of Moscow radio station, whose website is currently located at echo.msk.ru, plans to move to a different domain name.
RU-CENTER also assures that the new rules will be applied by the registrar in exceptional cases and only upon receipt of a reasoned request from competent or authorized bodies.
A top manager at RU-CENTER explained the website closure procedure: upon receiving an order from the Prosecutor General's Office or the Federal Drug Control Service, the domain's content will be analyzed, including by the company's lawyers. For example, restricting access to online media sites is illegal, and RU-CENTER may refuse to comply.
At the same time, internet analysts are confident the company will lose users: "This means it's time to think twice about registering domains with RU-CENTER, because, according to a new initiative, tomorrow they could be deemed to be promoting violence and pornography and shut down, without a court order, simply by a call from above or on their own initiative."
He spoke in detail about the new rules in an interview with Gazeta.ru.Head of RU-CENTER Alexander Panov.
"I'm fine with RU-Center's innovation. All this talk about censorship on the RuNet is nonsense," he noted.in comments to Rossiyskaya GazetaDirector of the Coordination Center for the National Internet Domain Andrey Kolesnikov.
