The Court of Appeals of Kentucky has accepted a
motion to stay a forfeiture hearing for 141 Internet domain names. Kentucky
Gov. Stephen Beshear and Michael J. Brown, the state's Secretary of Justice and
Public Safety, recently filed a case to seize over a hundred domain names
related to online gambling companies, including online poker sites, sportsbetting
companies and online casinos, as a measure to reduce the competition from
online gambling sites. The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming
Association (iMEGA) asked the appeals court to stay the forfeiture hearing
ordered by district court Judge Thomas Wingate scheduled for December 3rd,
until the appeals court checks and considers iMEGA's petition to reverse the domain
seizure ordered by a lower court. A hearing to review that petition has been
scheduled for December 12th in Louisville.
The appeals court also accepted
a petition filed by Interactive Gaming Council (IGC), an international online
gambling trade group located in of Vancouver,
BC. Both groups maintain that the
lower court does not have the power or the jurisdictional authority to order
the domain seizures. iMEGA contends that the lower court misinterpreted Kentucky's "gambling
devices" law in order to create basis to support the seizures. iMEGA also
argues that Kentucky's
actions infringe the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, and that Secretary
Brown does not have the power to start legal actions to seize the domains.
"We're pleased that
the Court of Appeals has given us the opportunity to challenge these seizures. The
commonwealth has tried to take these domains for their own financial gain,
violating Kentucky
law, exceeding their jurisdiction, and setting a terrible precedent in the
process. This matter has generated concerns across the online world about abuse
of governmental power. Kentucky
is opening the door for any government - state and local, foreign and domestic
- to use what amounts to blackmail to achieve its ends. If this precedent is
allowed to stand, it's not hard to imagine a government like China utilizing this kind of
seizure power to prevent free media, like the New York Times, from reaching
their citizens." said Joe Brennan Jr., iMEGA's chairman.
None of the 141 domain
names are owned by individuals or companies located or registered in the state
of Kentucky. Gov.
Beshear claimed the Internet gambling sites were sapping money from the state's
own gambling businesses, calling them "leeches on our community". For
more information, contact Joe Brennan Jr., chairman of iMEGA, or visit iMEGA.org.
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