directNIC helps people register domain names on the Internet. They are the registrar for MetroOnDemand.com, one of Capital Video’s websites. We recently asked directNIC to decline Capital Video’s business, and we invite the pubic to contact directNIC and support our request.
We wrote on January 31 [web links added]:
Dear directNIC,
Your Paid Hosting Terms of Service forbid the use of your system to disseminate pornography. I hope you will follow Afternic’s lead and extend this condition to domain registrations, including that of your client, MetroOnDemand.com, a vendor of porn.
Your hosting terms state:
You hereby agree that all domain names and any material submitted for publication on our System through your account will not contain anything that represents abuse of our Services or System. Abuse includes, but is not limited to using our Services or System to promote pornography, obscenity, nudity, violations of privacy, computer viruses, hacking, wares, or any other harassing or harmful materials or uses. You hereby agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claims resulting from your publication of materials or use of those materials. Furthermore, we may at our sole discretion deactivate your accounts, with our without notice, if we determine that you have engaged in abusive [sic] of our Services or System.
Your general Terms of Service require that a website’s content have consent from the participants. While we have no evidence at this time that the performers depicted at MetroOnDemand.com have not consented to appear, many of the movies sold there make a mockery of the notion of consent and being of age. The movies on sale include, “Live in Slave 2”, “Seduced Into Submission”, “Bubble Gum Virgins”, “Forbidden Cherries”, “Home Schooled #3”, “It’s a Young Girls Thing”, “Runaway Teens”, “Runaway Virgins” and “Young Dumb and Full of Cum”.
Your general terms state:
You agree that if we determine that your use of our Services or System is in any way connected or affiliated with the display, promotion, or dissemination of content obtained without reliable consent from each participant-e.g., sexual or nude images involving children under the age of 18, bestiality, murder, rape-we may charge your account a penalty in the amount of US $1,000.00 for every domain name in violation of this section. You further agree that we may collect these penalties by any means we deem necessary, including but not limited to charging any credit card you have on file with us or auctioning your domains.
At your earliest opportunity, I hope you will terminate your relationship with MetroOnDemand.com and all websites that profit from pornography. Please let me know if you can comply.
For more information about MetroOnDemand.com and the underlying corporation, Capital Video, please see http://nopornnorthampton.org/…
Thank you.
We received this reply from directNIC:
Thank you for using the directNIC.com Trouble Ticket System. The following response is from a qualified directNIC customer support team member:
Date: 01/31/07 08:45pm
From: dgiffordHello.
I checked the site in question and did not see anything of a illegal nature being sold. All of those movies are legitimate adult movies, and as far as I can tell do not violate any state or federal laws. Any further communication regarding this matter will need to be directed to legal@directnic.com.
Daniel
directNIC.comThank you again for using directNIC.com. We hope this response has sufficiently answered your question.
Please feel free to use the frequently asked questions page at http://www.directnic.com/help/ to find the answer to your questions.
Do you contact the registrars of other adult websites, or only those owned by Capital Video? Because there are lots and lots of them. It’s hard to see how this sort of strategy could possibly have an impact on Capital Video’s Northampton store, or their business in general, or the pornography industry as a whole, even if you had an unlimited amount of time with which to draft and send letters.
Good idea. Here’s some of what I sent to GoDaddy: “According to your terms of service, GoDaddy may terminate services if a customer engages in morally objectionable activities. ‘Morally objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to: activities designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass third parties…'”
I’ll let you know what I hear from them.