[declan@well.com: FC: Ogrish.com's hosting firm replies to Politech, starts boycott]

Thu, 13 Feb 2003 08:32:58 -0500

So an American living in America registered a .com (American domain) in
Germany with a Netherlands address?  Sounds like he was trying to avoid
something objectionable in America by registering it elsewhere.  If it
were something like ogish.de - that's another story.  Looks like Dany
Klinker of Amsterdam, Netherlands screwed up.  He tried to play the game
without reading the rules first.

George

Deepak Saxena wrote:
> 
> Thought this might be of interest to everyone.
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> -----
> 
> Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 23:32:36 -0500
> To: politech@politechbot.com
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
> Subject: FC: Ogrish.com's hosting firm replies to Politech, starts boycott
> Reply-To: declan@well.com
> 
> Previous Politech message:
> http://www.politechbot.com/p-04447.html
> 
> ---
> 
> From: "Theodore Hickman" <ted.hickman@prohosters.com>
> To: <declan@well.com>
> Subject: Fw: Emailing: statement021203-2230.txt
> Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 23:07:25 -0500
> 
> <http://prohosters.com/joker.html>http://prohosters.com/joker.html
> 
> They aren't Joking...
> 
> A formal response from our CEO regarding the actions of Joker.com
> 
> Before you register a domain name you should know about this:
> 
> On January 11th 2003 the German registrar Joker.com disabled the domain
> ogrish.com (a gruesome online photo gallery depicting real-life) and listed
> the reason as 'Disabled by Government.' The domain ogrish.com is hosted in
> America and complies with all American laws. When asked why the domain was
> disabled the only thing Joker.com would say is, 'We had an order from the
> government to disable the domain.' The domain is presently owned by an
> American.
> 
> Some may question the content of the domain however the domain obeys all
> local, state and federal laws. What right does a German registrar have to
> disable a global domain that is hosted in America?
> 
> What is shocking to us is that a global domain may be disabled by a
> Nation's government based on their laws when the content is hosted in a
> nation where the content is permitted. Even more shocking is the fact that
> the registrar has the right to refuse a transfer to an American owned
> registrar.
> 
> Does this mean any domain registered in a foreign country can be disabled
> without appeal, if the government of that country deems it unacceptable?
> Why does a registrar have the right to enforce content laws? Isn't a domain
> supposed to be judged by the content of the domain name and not the content
> of the site to which it links. Certainly Joker.com's intent is to disable
> ogrish.com's content not domain name. Knowing full well that the domain has
> name recognition, Germany's Government is trying through Joker.com to cause
> the greatest amount of damage to ogrish.com by disabling the domain at a
> registrar level. Could they not have just disabled access to ogrish.com
> from within Germany alone? Doesn't this better solve the problem with a
> Nation's laws? What gives them the right to police the content worldwide?
> 
> Pro Hosters has temporarily linked ogrish.com to ogrish.prohosters.com.
> Does this mean that TotalNic a foreign owned registrar can disable the
> domain prohosters.com for a small portion of the content contained within?
> How does this apply to sub domains?
> 
> We are told the domain is in the middle of the transfer to Network
> Solutions however they cannot tell us whether Joker.com will release it to
> us, that is Joker.com's decision.
> 
> What rights does ogrish.com have in this process? How can they reestablish
> the income that has been depleted by Joker.com's actions? There is nothing
> clearly documenting the procedure to appeal the decision of a registrar
> with either ICANN or Network Solutions. Are we to assume that all they can
> do is be at Joker.com's mercy, and not register domains with Joker.com in
> the future?
> 
> More importantly, one must begin to ask oneself; Is this the first of many?
> 
> We ask for your assistance in getting our message through by either posting
> of the animated gif we have created or writing the contacts at the
> information given below.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Network Solutions
> http://www.networksolutions.com
> Customer Service
> U.S. and Canada: 1-888-642-9675
> Worldwide: +1 703-742-0914
> E-mail: Click here to send e-mail
> 
> Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
> http://www.icann.org
> Phone: +1.310.823.9358
> FAX: +1.310.823.8649
> E-mail: icann@icann.org
> 
> Joker.com
> CSL Computer Service Langenbach GmbH
> d/b/a joker.com
> Rathausufer 16
> 40213 Duesseldorf
> Germany
> E-mail: Support form
> Phone: +49 211 8676741
> Fax: +49 211 8676710
> 
> Also, we highly recommend the following registrars:
> Network Solutions
> Register.com
> DomanNameSystems.com
> SRSPlus
> 
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> ----- End forwarded message -----
> 
> --
> Deepak Saxena - dsaxena@plexity.net
> 
> How much do you value your freedom? Would you trade your freedom for some
> illusion of security? Freedom is something that dies unless it's used.
> 
>    - Hunter S. Thompson -
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