I am about ready to start a political merchandise site that the current U.S. government would find very offensive (silly t-shirts/books/etc dealing with legal removal of George Bush & crew). I have found a great .US domain, but found out that they don't allow private registrations. Has anyone gotten around this? Without some level of anonymity, I'm pretty sure Bush advocates would slip my name into Audit lists or even a terrorist watch list. I'm not doing anything illegal, I just don't want my name (and my career) tarnished due to it being associated publicly with an anti-Republican site. Thanks, Anita
Can you trust anyone enough to register the domain...perhaps offer them a token % of your profits (1%) to ensure anonymity. You would be business partners on paper but the contarct can be whatever you want it to be. As far as the domain goes, that would of course belong (on paper) to your partner. But if thye are trustworthy that is not an issue. I have noticed some domain owners somehow remain anonymous on whois but I don't know how. Whatever happens, be sure to share your website with us. I am already in suspense Good luck!
You are not allowed private registration with a .US. Your best work-around would be to get a DBA (doing business as) name from your county clerk office, get a PO Box, and use free AIMphoneline.com or GrandCentral.com (Google phone) for a phone number. Many counties do have online access to the their DBA database so it would be possible for someone to track you down if they knew what county it was registered in. You could use a variation on your name, or maiden name, first initial & middle name etc...
Use fake whois info. I'm sure if they wanted to find out who you were they would track you down via your credit card anyway. lol
I think djmadfx's solution is the best. Register it in your name and change the contact detail with the registrar. Dotster allows you to do that. I'm sure others do to but I don't know of others.
In the U.S., this is now illegal, and punishable by up to 7 years in prison. They typically don't care, but for a site critical of the government I don't want to take any chances. My biggest concern is losing my credibility/standing in my professional career (during the day I am a corporate CIO). Thanks! Anita
If Anita uses a fake WHOIS she will lose the domain. Given the subject matter the site will undoubtedly attract complaints. Best bet is to use a modified name, a PO Box and a free internet phone number (AIM, GrandCentral). If you have already bought the US domain you could find that the current WHOIS contact info has already been archived at places like domaintools.com. Don't do a whois on your domain until after you change the details. You might be safer getting a .com instead.
Just get a different TLD. Get a dot com or something and make the whois private. It's all about give and take. You won't be "private" no matter how much you try to be. It's the internet. If anything they'll find out who you are via the web hosting company too. I just read about the bill they passed about the fake whois info. It sounds so stupid.
Here's the way it really works - Copies (electronic and paper if touchy enough) are archived by several if not multiple agencies. They may just sit there and collect digital dust - but it is all archived and is easily quearyable - so they can pull up any post - chat - text msg - anything that was digital even if only for a moment! If they want to find you - they will - CC#'s - ip addressess - aliases - you name it - imagine your job is just to put the pieces together of all of the e-mails someone has sent over the last 2 years - draw it out like a picture looking for similarites or multiple occurences and then following up. the best idea - Wear a mask - and buy a money order at the local grocery store - If they dont shoot you or call the cops - mail the M.O. and a letter stating your intentions with fake who is info to the registrar of your choice. - - mail it from another town and make sure you are wearing gloves - don't lick the envelope and buy paper readily availible at wal-mart. after they have completed their taks. Only use wireless internet cafes to log onto your account - and never the same one twice - Then you shouldnt have to worry about anyone from big brother knocking on your door. Please keep in mind this is not guarenteed! Always use your own judgement and this is for entertainment purposes only. http://www.dni.gov/aboutODNI/mission.htm http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/cyberhome.htm http://www.dia.mil/thisisdia/DIA_IT_Strategic_Plan.pdf http://www.nsa.gov/about/index.cfm http://www.dss.mil/about_dss/about_dss.html#mission http://iac.dtic.mil/about.html
You are not allowed to have private registration for .us names. There is no other way around it, except putting in fake whois info, which is not recommended. You could use a PO Box if you didn't want your address on the whois or a company name so you don't have your details there. Or get another extention like a .com