Dynadot

Dynadot was founded in 2002, in San Mateo, California, by Todd Han, a software engineer. Originally called INamePro, LLC, the organization changed their name to Dynadot in 2003. Han was the sole operator of the company during the first-three years of its launch and he had hired the company's first employee in 2005.{{cite web |title=About Dynadot |url=http://www.dynadot.com/community/about/about.html |url-status=dead |access-date=2022-08-25 |website=Dynadot |archive-date=2022-08-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830145513/https://www.dynadot.com/community/about/about.html }}

{{undue weight|section|date=January 2017}}

{{Main|Bank Julius Baer vs. Wikileaks lawsuit}}

In February 2008, the wikileaks.org domain name was taken offline after the Swiss bank Julius Baer Group sued WikiLeaks and Dynadot, the wikileaks.org domain registrar, in a court in California, United States, and obtained a permanent injunction ordering the shutdown.{{cite press release | title=Wikileaks.org under injunction | url=https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks.org_under_injunction | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306005837/https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks.org_under_injunction | archive-date=6 March 2008 | publisher=WikiLeaks | date=18 February 2008 | access-date=28 February 2008}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/wikileaks-domain-name-yanked-in-spat-over-leaked-documents/|title=Wikileaks domain name yanked in spat over leaked documents|last=McCullagh|first=Declan|date=19 February 2008|work=CNET|access-date=29 May 2018|language=en}} WikiLeaks had hosted allegations of illegal activities at the bank's Cayman Islands branch. WikiLeaks' U.S. Registrar, Dynadot, complied with the order by removing its DNS entries. However, the website remained accessible via its numeric IP address, and online activists immediately mirrored WikiLeaks at dozens of alternative websites worldwide.{{Cite news|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/free-speech-has-a-number-888013160/|title=Free Speech Has A Number: 88.80.13.160|date=20 February 2008|work=CBS News|access-date=29 May 2018|language=en}}

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a motion protesting the action taken against WikiLeaks. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press assembled a coalition of media and press that filed an amicus curiae brief on WikiLeaks' behalf. The coalition included major U.S. newspaper publishers and press organizations, such as the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press, the Citizen Media Law Project, the E. W. Scripps Company, the Gannett Company, the Hearst Corporation, the Los Angeles Times, the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Newspaper Association of America and the Society of Professional Journalists. The coalition requested to be heard as a friend of the court to call attention to relevant points of law that it believed the court had overlooked (on the grounds that WikiLeaks had not appeared in court to defend itself, and that no First Amendment issues had yet been raised before the court). Amongst other things, the coalition argued that:{{cite web|url=http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1039527/judge-rethinks-wikileaks|title=Judge reverses Wikileaks injunction|last=Orion|first=Egan|date=2 March 2008|website=www.theinquirer.net|publisher=The Inquirer|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://archive.today/20190908034836/https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1039527/judge-rethinks-wikileaks|archive-date=8 September 2019|access-date=23 September 2009}}{{unreliable source?|date=January 2017}}

WikiLeaks provides a forum for dissidents and whistleblowers across the globe to post documents, but the Dynadot injunction imposes a prior restraint that drastically curtails access to Wikileaks from the Internet based on a limited number of postings challenged by Plaintiffs. The Dynadot injunction therefore violates the bedrock principle that an injunction cannot enjoin all communication by a publisher or other speaker.{{cite web |last1=Media coalition |title=Document 62 |url=https://www.rcfp.org/news/documents/20080229-amicusbrie.pdf |website=Julius Baer v. WikiLeaks |publisher=Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press |access-date=2 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081127152524/https://www.rcfp.org/news/documents/20080229-amicusbrie.pdf |archive-date=27 November 2008 |date=26 February 2008}}

Judge Jeffrey White, who initially issued the injunction, vacated it on 29 February 2008, citing First Amendment concerns and questions about legal jurisdiction.{{cite news | author=Philipp Gollner | work=Reuters| url=https://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSN2927431720080229 | title=Judge reverses ruling in Julius Baer leak case | date=29 February 2008 | access-date=1 March 2008}}{{Cite web|url=https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/bank-asks-judge-to-dismiss-its-suit-against-wikileaks-site/|title=Bank Moves to Withdraw Its Suit Against Wikileaks Site|last=Glater|first=Jonathan D.|date=5 March 2008|website=New York Times (Bits Blog)|language=en-US|access-date=29 May 2018}} WikiLeaks was thus able to bring its site online again. The bank dropped the case on 5 March 2008.{{cite web

|url=http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902154

|title=Swiss Bank Abandons Lawsuit Against WikiLeaks: The wiki had posted financial documents it said proved tax evasion by Bank Julius Baer's clients

|first=Thomas

|last=Claburn

|publisher=InformationWeek

|date=6 March 2008}}{{unreliable source?|date=January 2017}} The judge also denied the bank's request for an order prohibiting the website's publication.{{unreliable source?|date=January 2017}}

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Category:Internet properties established in 2002

Category:Companies based in San Mateo, California

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