Re: Nothing like prior constraint. No courts just NetSol!!! Internet company suspends politician's website over Qur'an film

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Steve Crocker [steve () shinkuro com]
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 7:17 PM
To: David Farber
Cc: Steve Crocker; ip
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   Nothing like prior constraint. No courts just NetSol!!! Internet company suspends politician's 
website over Qur'an film

Karl,

Perhaps you can also comment on the effect of non-ICANN controlled
registries and registrars.  As you know well, but for the benefit of
the other readers, ICANN's contract rules apply to the "generic" top
level domains -- com, net, org, info, biz, museum, aero, mobi, etc.
-- but do not apply to the "country code" top level domains -- uk,
de, se, jp, in, br, etc., etc.  Similarly, ICANN has some contractual
authority over the accredited registrars who sell the gTLD domains,
but there other registrars serving the ccTLDs which are not
accredited by ICANN.  The ccTLD community is not bound by a single
set of rules, so perhaps there are registries and registrars among
that community who would take a different approach toward possibly
offensive content.

Of course, protection of expression regarding the Qur'an is only one
part of the overall equation.  Sale of Nazi memorabilia, child porn,
phishing and other phenomena also draw attention and create calls for
controlling content or finding out the identity of the purveyor.
Your formula of limiting action unless it violates the laws of the
home country doesn't address the issue of significant differences
among countries.

Steve



On Mar 23, 2008, at 6:51 PM, David Farber wrote:

> ________________________________________
> From: Karl Auerbach [karl () cavebear com]
> Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 4:52 PM
> To: David Farber
> Cc: ip
> Subject: Re: [IP] Nothing like prior constraint. No courts just
> NetSol!!! Internet company suspends politician's website over
> Qur'an film
>
> David Farber wrote:
> > From: tariq biziou [tariq.biziou () gmail com]
>
> > Network Solutions announced late Saturday that it had suspended the
> > site, www.fitnathemovie.com , as the company assesses whether it
> > contravenes its "acceptable use policy."
>
> You will find that many, perhaps most, domain name registrars have
> similar policies that allow them to take over a domain name
> registration
> an very subjective criteria.
>
> What NTIA has done via its ICANN is to create, via contracts, a de
> facto
> law of the internet in which registrars can impose their private
> view of
> internet morality and acceptable use.  Given that most registrars are
> for-profit companies they will generally take the path that is most
> likely to avoid conflicts - which tends to mean a rather puritanical
> outlook and a willingness to sacrifice a $10 domain name registrant.
>
> It would completely within the contractual powers of these ICANN
> accredited registrars to, for example, yank the domain name
> registrations of the campaign websites for McCain, Clinton, or Obamma
> and set up a parking webpage in their place that says "we removed this
> because we consider it immoral".
>
> I can understand why Network Solutions feels at risk should it
> register
> a domain name that might be used in a URL leading to materials that
> might offend certain highly ceertain sensitive and violently reactive
> religious zealots.
>
> But the answer is not the kind of private censorship that Network
> Solutions and other ICANN accredited are doing.
>
> The answer is this: ICANN should pull its accreditation from any
> registrar or registry that engages in any content-related decisions
> beyond those clearly required by the laws of the home country of that
> registry or registrar.
>
> Will ICANN do this?  Given that ICANN is largely funded by DNS
> registry
> and registrars and that ICANN is structured to give a privileged
> position to these business in its decision making processes (while at
> the same time locking out the domain name registrants themselves) I
> doubt that ICANN will even begin to consider such a policy.
>
>                 --karl--
>
>
>
>
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