[dns-operations] New U.S. Senate Bill re DNS Blocking

[David Ulevitch]

On Sep 21, 2010, at 4:11 PM, Paul Hoffman wrote:

> At 3:49 PM -0700 9/21/10, Ray Van Dolson wrote:
>> On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 03:12:10PM -0700, Livingood, Jason wrote:
>>> Not sure if many folks have yet taken notice of this:
>>> http://judiciary.senate.gov/legislation/upload/CombatingOnlineInfringementAndCounterfeitsAct.pdf
>>> 
>>> Included is:
>>> Ša service providerŠor other operator of a domain name system server
>>> shall take reasonable steps that will prevent a domain name from
>>> resolving to that domain name's Internet protocol address;
>> 
>> What the heck does that even mean? :)
> 
> IANAL, and this list is the wrong place for such a discussion

maybe...

> but in the context of the bill, the clear implication is "nameserver admins must stop serving A and AAAA records for particular domain names when told to under the auspices of this law if it is enacted". Also, given the difference between what Jason quoted and the paragraphs that precede it, this means "and we are not talking about just shutting off the domain name here; we understand the difference".

I'm not sure it's clear, and I'll be working to get it clarified.  As it's written, it includes recursive DNS operators.  As intended by the context surrounding it, I believe it's to mean only authoritative DNS operators.  Unfortunately the definition of service provider is geared towards ISPs, and so hopefully I can get that fixed.

-David