Does anyone have any experience regarding anonymously registering a new domain name?
There are a number of US registrars offering anonymous, or private, domain name registration, where the registrar registers the new domain name in their own name but the customer has full rights to use, trade, sell the name, etc. They usually charge an additional $5 to $10 per month for the service. However, they all state that if the cutomer does anything 'bad' with the domain name (e.g. illegal pornography, spamming, copyright infringement), they will lose the benefit of anonymity. So it's not a true anonymous registration.
As a matter of interest, note this comment from EFF:
The tradition of anonymous speech is older than United States, where founders Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote the Federalist Papers as "Publius" and "the Federal Farmer" spoke up in rebuttal. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly recognized rights to speak anonymously derived from the First Amendment. See McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n, 514 U.S. 334, 342 (1995) ("anonymous pamphleteering is not a pernicious, fraudulent practice, but an honorable tradition of advocacy and dissent");
But I bet you would never guess who was a supporter of anonymous free speech (from the same web page as above):
In the United States, at least, the right to anonymous speech is protected well beyond the printed page. Thus the Supreme Court struck down a law requiring proselytizers to register before going door-to-door, even where the town had claimed an interest in preventing physical crime supported its law. See Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc'y of New York, Inc. v. Village of Stratton, 536 U.S. 150, 166 (2002). Requiring registration to speak through domain names online does not fit this tradition.
So there you have it, Watchtower supports anonymous free speech.
So, getting back to my original question. Hypothetically, if someone was involved in a project which they did not want to be traceable back to them, how would they go about it?
Would it make any difference, e.g. registering the new domain name with a registrar located in a country which would be hostile to a US court's requests for information. But what then if a multinational corporation used its local branch to request the information?
Any tips, suggestions or personal experiences would be most welcome.