I missed the whole thing where .com was managed by the US, i thought that's why the .us domain was invented... i don't think anyone outside the US associates a .com meaning US based.
Regardless, stupid law, Team America strikes again!
The company which manages .com is headquartered in the US. This is also true for .org and .net and .us and .gov.
Under US law it is now possible for the US to seize any of these domain names -- and it will continue until the international organization in charge of this system (ICANN) says "oh, that's retarded, we're changing the system so that the US doesn't host .com and .org domains."
We had to fight against two acts proposed in the US which would have made it possible for the US to build a sort of DNS firewall to deny access to other domains from users working within the US -- our own rough draft of the Chinese firewall, if you like. (That was SOPA and PIPA.) But this other right was granted earlier than that, and is now being used to chilling effect.
Wow, thanks, I didn't know that. Why this stuff isn't decentralised is crazy, but at this point I guess there is a lot of vested interest to keep it that way.
EDIT: Just read about BitCoin! Sounding better and better now!
Regardless, stupid law, Team America strikes again!