FC: Ogrish.com's hosting firm replies to Politech, starts boycott

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Feb 12 2003 - 20:32:36 PST

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    Previous Politech message:
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-04447.html
    
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    From: "Theodore Hickman" <ted.hickmanat_private>
    To: <declanat_private>
    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: icannat_private
    
    
    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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