The Kentucky Supreme Court heard arguments on Thursday on whether the Common Wealth of Kentucky has the power to seize 141 domains belonging to online gambling sites.
Previously a Franklin Circuit Court Judge ruled for the state saying it was allowed to seize the domain names, but the Court of Appeals overturned that decision. The case was then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled late Tuesday that the state could not seize 141 online gambling domains because they do not constitute a gambling device under Kentucky law.The ruling overturns a controversial decision made by Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate in October that said online gambling domains could be seized by the state because the domains were illegal gambling devices that violated Kentucky law.
Seizing a domain is like seizing a billboard, argue the attorneys appealing Kentucky governor Steve Beshear’s attempt to take possession of 141 gambling domains. Even if domains were forfeited, users could still access gambling sites via IP addresses, which become destinations without signs over them.
WebProNews has just received the 44-page order and opinion from Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate regarding the seizure of 141 online gambling domain names.Like China, Kentucky is now trampling on the freedoms of the citizens of the Commonwealth by blocking domains that are legal in most parts of the world.
What is it about politicians? They seem great when running for office and once they get there they either do dumb stuff or reach for powers not given to them. In Kentucky’s case, it’s both, unfortunately, and when Governor Beshear talks about the threat of online gambling, every sensible thing he ever said flies out the window.
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has announced he wants to shut down 141 illegal Internet gambling sites in the state in an effort to stop unregulated online gaming.Beshear has filed a civil suit against the 141 domain names and is asking the court to force the sites to block access to Kentucky users or give up control of their domain names.
A federal lawsuit filed by a Kentucky blogger against former Governor Ernie Fletcher and the Commonwealth of Kentucky has been settled. Under the terms of the settlement, the Commonwealth agrees to apply a "viewpoint-neutral" policy to blogs and websites accessed by state-owned computers.
Kentucky's newly elected Democratic Governor Steve Beshear lifted a ban set in place by former Governor Ernie Fletcher that barred state employees from accessing blogs on state computers. Fletcher's move was a controversial one that led to national press coverage of allegations that he was trying to silence critics, and a federal lawsuit filed by a Kentucky gadfly blogger.
WebProNews previously reported how Kentucky State Representative, Tim Couch, proposed a bill that would not allow Kentuckians to comment anonymously on the Internet.
State workers in Kentucky's capitol have been suspended for using the Internet. Not for illegal or questionable activities, but for reading news, doing searches, and shopping.
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