Ultimately he is protected under US safe harbor law and provisions as an 'ISP' and so are DirectNic assuming it isn't just a "front".
I am not too sure what to think about this case to be honest as we're not in possession of all the facts to ascertain this particular case, but I do think Registrar's should stay out of it short of a court order (i.e similar to what happened with isonews.com).
I see it as a dangerous encroachment if the Feds no longer need to get a court order to force a Registrar to transfer or otherwise place a domain name on hold due to inappropriate content.
Yes of course we're all against this kind of content, without a doubt, however I believe short of a court order Registrar's should keep out of it and if they continue to interfere and do what law enforcement demands (without a court order) it won't be long until ICANN start making it official and writing these ill defined 'responsibilities' into Registrar's contracts and in relation to content, who knows where it will end.
Of course I hope DirectNic know what they're doing after all Mike AI is a law graduate I believe, but they could potentially face big liabilities for this sort of behavior!
