Notice-and-Take-Down Procedure for .nl domain names

When can you use the Notice-and-Take-Down (NTD) Procedure?

When you come across website content (e.g. words or pictures) that's clearly criminal or unlawful, or a domain name that's clearly being used in a criminal or unlawful way. Of course, you can ask a law court to intervene if you prefer.

• You need to have a 'legitimate interest in' (that's legal language for 'something honest to gain from') getting the problem resolved.

How does the NTD Procedure work?

You ask SIDN BV to disable a .nl domain name.

• We only disable domain names as a last resort.

  • Before asking us to disable a domain name, you need to ask these people and organisations to do something about the problem:

    • The person who put the content on the internet (uploader, writer, etc)

    • The website manager

    • The registrant of the domain name

    • The reseller (hosting service provider)

    • The domain name's registrar (hosting service provider)

    • Us, SIDN BV

How do you contact the relevant people/organisations?

To contact the registrant, use the e-mail address of the domain name's administrative contact person.

To contact the registrar (hosting service provider) use their abuse contact e-mail address and/or visit the registrar's website for contact information.

Do we assess all NTD requests ourselves?

No, we work with partner organisations on some kinds of NTD request.

• We forward those requests to our partners.

  • For example, we forward requests about child sexual exploitation material to the Reporting Hotline for Internet Child Pornography.

When should you follow a different procedure?

If you think that a domain name is itself a threat to public order or decency.

• In that case, you can complain to the Complaints and Appeals Board.

If you think that a domain name ought to be yours.

• Then you can use the Dispute Resolution Regulations for .nl Domain Names.

In both those situations, you can take your case to a law court if you prefer.

What if you don't know how to get in touch with the registrant?

Not all the info that we have about a domain name's registrant is published in the Whois on our website.

• You can ask us to share the non-public info with you: use the online form Requesting registrants details or use the pdf form Request Form for Contact Details.

How do you make an NTD request?

Complete the NTD form and send it to us.

• Complete the form in full, and sign it. Send us copies of your previous correspondence about the problem as well.

What will we do when we get your form?

• We'll write back to confirm we've got your form.

• We'll check whether the form meets the requirements.

  • If anything's wrong, we'll ask you to put it right.

• We'll check that you've contacted all the people and organisations mentioned above.

• We'll see whether it would be better for one of our partner organisations to handle your request.

  • Sometimes we forward requests to partners with special expertise.

• We'll consider 2 things:

  • Whether any clearly criminal or unlawful activity is involved.

  • Whether the activity is serious enough to justify disabling the domain name.

    • We'll assess the situation carefully and to the best of our ability.

• We'll contact the registrar before going ahead.

• If we disable the domain name, we'll mail the registrant's administrative contact to inform them.

  • We'll also update you and the registrar.

  • After that, we'll decide whether to end our contract with the registrant, and whether the domain name should be made available for registration by anyone else.

If we decide against acting on your request, we'll get back to you explaining why.

What else do you need to know about this procedure?

We operate the NTD procedure on a voluntary basis. You can't therefore claim any legal rights from the procedure.

We may get in touch with you, the registrant, the registrar or others about the problem you've highlighted.

What does disabling a domain name involve?

We'll break the link between the domain name and its IP address.

• It'll then be harder for internet users to find the content.

• Computers temporarily save (or 'cache') internet content. So people may be able to go on using the domain name to view the content for days or even weeks.

  • It's therefore best to ask others to do something before approaching us.

What other conditions apply to NTD requests?

You have to 'indemnify' us. That means you're financially responsible if we get sued for acting on your request.

• For example, if someone loses money because we've disabled their domain name, they might try to get the money back from us.

We may agree other conditions with you if we decide to disable a domain name.