[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Ogrish.com's hosting firm replies to Politech, starts boycott

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	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
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-04447.html

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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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