Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Boyd Law Scholarly Works Faculty Scholarship 2018 Territorialization of the Internet Domain Name System Marketa Trimble University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- William S. Boyd School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub Part of the Intellectual Property Law Commons, International Law Commons, and the Internet Law Commons Recommended Citation Trimble, Marketa, "Territorialization of the Internet Domain Name System" (2018). Scholarly Works. 1020. https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/facpub/1020 This Article is brought to you by the Scholarly Commons @ UNLV Boyd Law, an institutional repository administered by the Wiener-Rogers Law Library at the William S. Boyd School of Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Territorialization of the Internet Domain Name System Marketa Trimble* Abstract Territorializationof the internet-the linking of the internet to physical geography is a growing trend. Internet users have become accustomed to the conveniences of localized advertising, have enjoyed location-based services, and have witnessed an increasing use of geolocation and geo- blocking tools by service and content providers who for various reasons- either allow or block access to internet content based on users' physical locations. This article analyzes whether, and if so how, the trend toward territorializationhas affected the internetDomain Name System (DNS). As a hallmark of cyberspace governance that aimed to be detached from the territorially-partitionedgovernance of the physical world, the DNS might have been expected to resist territorialization-a design that seems antithetical to the original design of and intent for the internet as a globally distributed network that lacks a single point of control.