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 ----- > > Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 23:32:36 -0500 > To: politech@politechbot.com > From: Declan McCullagh > 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" > To: > Subject: Fw: Emailing: statement021203-2230.txt > Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 23:07:25 -0500 > > 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 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list > You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. > To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html > This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ > Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ > Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ----- 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 - > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss