Vb.ly is an adult URL shortener service owned by Ben Metcalfe and Violet Blue. Both believe their domain was unrightfully seized by the Libyan government in the country's designs to take back .ly domains that are less than four characters in length.
Blue explains, "The photograph of me ... with my bare arms, holding a bottle, and the words 'sex-positive' were cited as obscene, offensive and illegal. We were also told that we were 'promoting an illegal activity' with our link shortener."
The latter accusation has to do with vb.ly's stated purpose -- to be a "sex-positive" service for shortening URLs. So, while vb.ly does not host adult content -- though the photograph alone was deemed obscene by NIC.ly -- the short URLs direct to sites with pornographic content.
Metcalfe and Blue have been stymied in their attempts to retain their vb.ly domain or recover their recently paid renewal fees. Alaeddin S. Elsharif with NIC.ly responded to their inquiries with a detailed statement that Blue has posted in full on her blog.
A portion of the letter reads, "Clause 3.5 clearly states that: 'The Applicant certifies that, to the best of his/her knowledge the domain name is not being registered for any activities/purpose not permitted under Libyan law.' Pornography and adult material aren’t allowed under Libyan Law, therefore we removed the domain."
Pornography or no pornography, Metcalfe and Blue believe that their domain seizure represents a larger interest by Libya to recover domains shorter than four characters for local use. For this reason and the stringency of Libyan Islamic Sharia Law, Metcalfe and Blue say other .ly owners should be on "high alert."