op Ashiko: we will be placing the domain name(s) into a suspended status on 9th January 2019.

DarkSky · Jan 7, 2019

Today I received an email from nominet saying a domain of mine will be suspended on 9th Jan (2 days time).

Nominet, the registry for .uk domain names, has been contacted by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in relation to your domain name(s). We have been informed that the domain name(s) below are in breach of UK criminal law and in addition that Nominet's terms and conditions have been breached.

----------.co.uk

http://www.nominet.uk/go/terms

Having investigated the complaint, we have found breaches of one or more of the promises and indemnity conditions set out in condition 6 and in accordance with condition 10 we will be placing the domain name(s) into a suspended status on 9th January 2019. Your registrar has also been informed.

If you have any queries in relation to this message, please address it to the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, email: [email protected] or phone: 0207 164 8250, reference: Ashiko.

It gives me no recourse with nominet and tells me to contact the police regarding it. I've had no previous emails from them.

The domain is generic-ish and there is no trademark I can find which it could be confused with.

The content on the site is from affiliate network feeds which I have permission to reproduce.

What can I do about this? I'd like to try to at least find out what IP i'm supposed to have infringed so I can remove it from other sites im involved with.

Will the police respond with the information?

Cheers

dee · Jan 7, 2019

I would have thought if they got involved it would be more to do with digital piracy or counterfit goods issues than content issues ? Does the domain have any previous history ? Have you had it a while ?

dee · Jan 7, 2019

Theres an email contact in here:

https://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/...rime/pipcu/Documents/pipcu-referral-guide.pdf

DarkSky · Jan 7, 2019

dee said:
I would have thought if they got involved it would be more to do with digital piracy or counterfit goods issues than content issues ? Does the domain have any previous history ? Have you had it a while ?

Well, there's 100% none of that going on, it's just an affiliate store using data from legit UK retailers.

I've had the domain (edit : ) 2 months, it was free to reg, admittedly i didnt check the history before hand, would have just been a google search on the domain in quotemarks. (I dont recall any/many results). It almost certainly would have been previously registered, though.

dee · Jan 7, 2019

check the way back machine to see if theres an archive

https://archive.org/web/

DarkSky · Jan 7, 2019

dee said:
check the way back machine to see if theres an archive

https://archive.org/web/

thanks, no captures

but would they seriously not have checked the domain has expired and been reregistered if the police were concerned with content from more than 6 months ago? (ive had it 4 months and it'd have been in redemption for a while?)

edit: I've had the domain 2.5 months

DarkSky · Jan 7, 2019

bens said:
https://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/...d-economic-crime/pipcu/Pages/About-PIPCU.aspx

"Operation Ashiko was created to targets the sale of online physical counterfeit goods and aims to seize the domains of infringers. "

So (I'm guessing) a brand has found my site which has their products on it and concluded the site must be selling counterfeit goods, without even clicking "buy" which would have taken them directly to a UK retailer. Then they filed the complaint with op ashiko, and they didnt bother to check either.

DarkSky · Jan 7, 2019

Well I was right, the police responded to my email to tell me a brand has done just that, all probably automated. I'm awaiting a call from someone at the police with more info.

I'm shocked that this the process, no contact to try and resolve, just straight for suspension. Unbelievable.

diablo · Jan 7, 2019

Also a waste of police time if no checks are being made by either the brand or Nominet. Very wrong.

armistice · Jan 7, 2019

DarkSky said:
Well I was right, the police responded to my email to tell me a brand has done just that, all probably automated. I'm awaiting a call from someone at the police with more info.

I'm shocked that this the process, no contact to try and resolve, just straight for suspension. Unbelievable.

At least you got advance warning of the domains suspension giving you some time to sort out the problem.
I'd would also contact Nominet direct at the very least to inform them you are talking to the police and to explain the situation (Nominets 'investigation' appears to be lacking here, my guess is they didn't investigate at all)
Please let us know what happens.

LCHappy · Jan 7, 2019

The FCA had one of ours taken down even though it had been authorised by them and on their register for the previous 12 months. Similar to the above, Nom said there was no right to appeal.

Nominet appeared to be just as dismayed as us about it, luckily someone at Nom contacted the FCA and asked them to reconsider. Luckily for us they did.

I do kind of support the ability to take down names asap, but there has to be a right of appeal or some process short of paying a judge 5k to take a look.