Recent Posts
- ICANN slashes new gTLD income forecast AGAIN
- Sedo’s cunning GDPR workaround
- ICANN board talking GDPR “litigation”
- Failure to launch: 10 years-old gTLDs that are still dormant
- EnCirca partners with PandoraBots to push .bot names to brands
- Donuts freezes .place gTLD ahead of new geofencing rules
- Registrars want six-month stay on new Whois policy
- Lauded domainer arrested over $2.4 million “extortion”
- Domainers not welcome in this Whois database
- ICANN approves messy, unfinished Whois policy
- Three reasons ICANN could swing the GDPR ban hammer on day one
- New gTLD registries get $6 million refund
- Cute abruptly quits PIR
- No, I don’t get what’s going on with GDPR either
- Whois working group imploding in GDPR’s wake
- Have your say on single-character .com domains
- NamesCon dumps the Trop, eyeing beaches for 2020
- CentralNic now managing failing .fan and .fans
- CIRA has a record year for regs
- MMX rejected three takeover bids before buying .xxx
- ICANN flips off governments over Whois privacy
- 101domain founders suing Afilias over unpaid $1 million after $15.5 million acquisition
- MMX could announce acquisition this week
- Google’s .app gTLD beats .porn to biggest sunrise yet
- Van Gelder remembered in GNSO resolution
- $55 billion bank not paying its $6,250 ICANN fees
- ICANN cancels registrar audit as GDPR headaches loom
- Iceland breaks ranks on Whois, will publish emails
- auDA wins brief reprieve from boardroom battle
- .com adds 5.5 million names, renewals back over 70%
- Muslim world still thinks .islam isn’t kosher
- Drop-catcher drops almost all remaining registrars
- Another failing new gTLD stopped paying its dues
- ICANN found a zero-day hole in Adobe Connect
- Nominet to charge brands for no-name Whois access
- auDA may sue to delay boardroom bloodbath
- I just bought a new gTLD registry’s domain for $10
- Child abuse becoming big problem for new gTLDs
- Government gives auDA reform-or-die ultimatum
- Leaked memo alleges lavish travel spending at auDA
- dotFM offers $1.1 million stash of emoji domains
- Bling-maker kills off fifth dot-brand gTLD
- Now GNSO mulls emergency response to GDPR deadline
- auDA refers former directors to police
- CoCCA to charge trademark owners for Whois access
- Panic stations as Europe plays hardball on Whois privacy
- 101domain founder Wolfgang Reile dies at 67
- ICANN confirms GoDaddy Whois probe
- Grumpier Aussies call for more blood on the auDA boardroom floor
- Afilias scraps plan to scrap Whois
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've been having to do this with my GoDaddy domains for awhile now, when listing them on Sedo.... read more
Kevin, this has been in place for years. As in, at least five years.... read more
Dear Domainers - what was not said in this article is that individual persons still can require to be published in the W... read more
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the true ramifications of the loss of the full Whois. It's basically going to be... read more
No offense, but Sedo has had the option for DNS verification for many years. They are only having to fall back to it as ... read more
SSL certificate providers have been doing this for years. Many hosting providers who are not registrars also do somethin... read more
A correction, .नेट is not a transliteration of .com, instead, it is a transliteration of .Net Great post. Lots of info... read more
Pretty sure Google has .ing also which is a dormant goldmine. Someday .ing is probably the dark horse of winner of th... read more
It would be very unrealistic to request moratorium or lenience and yet sue DPAs. But on #3, it could be either under-enf... read more
Wonder why .FORUM has not launched yet.... read more