LegitScript.com has requested that GoDaddy terminate 155 steroid websites that they have determined are responsible for selling anabolic steroids over the internet to U.S. residents. LegitScript.com sent the termination request via email and via U.S. mail on July 1, 2008. LegitScript.com argues that domain registrars have a legal, social and moral obligation to shutdown the steroid websites they identified because they violate the registrar’s terms of service (“Pumped Up on the Internet – The Illicit Online Sale of Anabolic Steroids,” July 20).
In addition to having the technical ability to make rogue steroid websites inaccessible, the domain name registrars have the contractual obligation and/or contractual opportunity to do so. Each domain name registrar noted in this report requires customers to agree to a “User Agreement” or similar legal document. These agreements prohibit the use of a website for illegal purposes, and give the domain name registrar the right to make the website inaccessible if that provision is violated. Further, the International Commission on Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international organization responsible for oversight of domain name registrars, has long maintained a policy position requiring domain name registrars to prohibit illegal activity on their websites in these User Agreements.
Of course, in addition to having the contractual obligation to take down websites engaged in drug dealing, most Americans would likely agree that the domain name registrars have a social or moral obligation to do so.
LegitScript and KnujOn decided to test whether the domain name registrars were living up to those obligations.
In what they believe to be the most comprehensive study of Internet-based anabolic steroid sales, LegitScript.com in conjunction with KnujON.com have identified the approximately 300 websites that allegedly account for a “significant portion” of illicit internet sales of anabolic steroids to individuals in the United States.
While 155 of these steroid websites using the U.S. based registrar, GoDaddy, all websites are physically located outside the United States where the DEA has limited or no jurisdiction.
GoDaddy responded by stating the the “matter had been referred to their abuse department.” However, GoDaddy has not shut down the steroid pharmacy websites. The other seven registrars contacted by LegitScript have not responded or refused to terminate the steroid websites.
The LegitScript report notes that there is precedent for GoDaddy terminating websites illegally offerring pharmaceuticals for sale:
Moreover, we note the recent testimony of GoDaddy’s chief counsel, noting that in 2007, the company suspended 1,300 websites illicitly offering drugs for sale, the company’s stated willingness to continue doing so, and that the company uses its “terms of service broadly to cancel privacy (for website registration) when it is being used for ANY improper purpose” (emphasis in original).
LegitScript asserts that it is irrelevant is the steroid website is based in a country where anabolic steroids are legally sold (over the internet) without a prescription.
What about the fact that anabolic steroids are actually legal without a prescription in some countries? Even if the seller is located in that country, and therefore not violating that country’s law, two things are clear: first, the drugs are being marketed and made available to residents of the United States, where the illegality of anabolic steroids, without a prescription, is well-established, and second, the domain name registrars in question, being physically located within the United States, should consider US law to definie what is “illegal” for purposes of the terms of their User Agreements, and take action accordingly.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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