Judge Shields Web Domains of Iran, Syria

WASHINGTON (CN) - Web domains owned by Iran, Syria and North Korea are not available to victims of terror attacks seeking to collect substantial money judgments, a federal judge ruled.

The numerous plaintiffs that are spread out over multiple cases issued writs of attachment to ICANN, short for the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers,

over the states' property, and moved for discovery on the matter.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth denied the motion and granted ICANN's motion to quash on Nov. 10.

"There is little authority on the question of whether Internet domain names may be attached in satisfaction of a judgment," one of the seven identical rulings Lamberth issued on the matter states. "Indeed, no reported decision of any American court appears to have decided the specific issue of whether a [country code top level domain] may be attached."

ICANN - a nonprofit corporation that performs the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions under a U.S. government contract - could theoretically sweep out the countries' domains from them, but Lamberth cited precedent by the Virginia Supreme Court that forbids garnishing a web domain name to satisfy a debt.

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