Recent Posts
- ICANN probing Donuts and Tucows over anti-Jewish web site
- Bad.monster? Two more gTLDs have been acquired
- First non-brand gTLD to go dark
- Two controversial new gTLDs launching in January
- Afilias bought .io for $70 million
- Uniregistry calls for domain Bill of Rights as Schilling says Gab.com was not booted
- Wagner takes dig at Verisign as GoDaddy reports $310 million domain revenue
- Will ICANN take a bigger slice of the .com pie, or will .domainers get URS?
- Trump gives Verisign almost $1 billion in free money
- Kirikos lawyers up after ICANN etiquette fight
- This is how AppDetex works
- Amazon offered $5 million of free Kindles for .amazon gTLD
- US not happy with Donuts hiring Atallah
- ICANN denies it’s in bed with trademark lawyers
- ICANN 63, Day 0 — registrars bollock DI as Whois debate kicks off
- Registrars still not responding to private Whois requests
- Book review — “Domain Names: Strategies and Legal Aspects”
- Co-founder Nevett leaves Donuts
- The internet is still working after KSK roll
- Donuts loses to ICANN in $135 million .web auction appeal
- ICANN says it can spend quarter-billion-dollar auction fund however it likes
- Google abandons its .kid gTLD bid
- ICANN number two Atallah is new CEO of Donuts
- ICANN blocks .islam after government veto
- Nominet to donate over $260,000 to Children In Need
- CentralNic buys .fans for peanuts
- Is auDA’s new marketing windfall working?
- Google adds censorship workaround to Android devices
- Spammy .loan makes Alibaba fastest-growing and fastest-shrinking registrar in June
- Here’s what ICANN’s boss is saying about Whois access now
- Parsons quits GoDaddy board
- Brazil dancing around four million reg milestone
- Donuts says DPML now covers “millions” of trademark variants as price rockets again
- Chinese registrars on the decline
- $3.2 million-a-year registrar up for grabs
- It’s Drazek vs Dammak for GNSO Council chair
- Cloudflare selling all domains at cost: “All we’re doing is pinging an API”
- MMX waving goodbye to .london? Boss puts focus on renewal profits, China
- Emoji domains now easier to use
- Chutzpah alert! DotKids wants ICANN handout to fight gTLD auction
- Afilias gets Guinness record for .au migration
- KSK vote was NOT unanimous
- ICANN turns 20 today (or maybe not)
- Van der Laan to leave ICANN board
- Set buttocks to clench! ICANN approves risky KSK rollover
- Mediators hired as Whois reformers butt heads
- US scraps fucking stupid “seven dirty words” ban
- Beginning of the end for DomainTools? Court orders it to scrub Whois records
- PIR chief: registries should stop stressing about volume
- .CLUB sees spam double after China promotion
YouPorn owner arrested in tax evasion probe
YouPorn owner and regular ICM Registry antagonist Fabian Thylmann has reportedly been arrested in Belgium in connection with a German tax evasion investigation.
He was taken into custody at Brussels airport today under a warrant from the Cologne District Court, according to German daily Die Welt.
Thylmann is the owner — some say nominally so — of Manwin Licensing, the online porn empire behind brands such as YouPorn, Brazzers and, under license, Playboy.
Manwin sued ICANN and ICM late last year over the .xxx gTLD, saying it violates US antitrust laws, charges which are denied.
The company is also engaged in an ICANN Independent Review Panel procedure over the same issues.
ICM says that the lawsuit, and a related boycott, are merely attempts to disrupt its business. Thylmann, the company claims, offered to invest in ICM but was rebuffed.
According to Die Welt, Manwin’s German headquarters was raided last Tuesday as part of an ongoing tax evasion probe, which was spurred in part by the newspaper’s own investigation into the company.
Recent Comments
I note the domain is now with Namecheap - Did eNom pull the plug?... read more
The so-called British Indian Ocean Territory was stolen by the British to build an American military base. It's fitting ... read more
Afilias gives .io stability, but shady (crypto) .io domain owners won't like Afilias owning the .io registry. Harder to ... read more
Great win for Afilias. Super smart. Only downside I see is it puts .io squarely in the jurisdiction of the US court... read more
Versign's opponents in this battle will likely begins to speak of effective alternatives to the TLD and any under the co... read more
Verisign vs Domain Industry is going to go 12 rounds. Round 1 just ended, 11 more rounds to go! This fight is going to ... read more
.domainers? Somehow I missed that new TLD... As to your initial question: Why not both?... read more
The per-domain .net fee is about 3x that of the .coms which I always thought was a penslty-cost for operating more than ... read more
This is probably what the whole maneuver was out to do in the first place. After all, the gTLD for the region should be ... read more
There's a difference between market cap and cash on hand. AMZN has "only" $27B cash on hand.... read more