From: measl@mfn.org [mailto:measl@mfn.org]
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2001 10:01 AM> Guys, why should a North American provider give a place for this
> propaganda?Maybe becuase they believe that censorship of opposing
opinions is BAD?
Actually, John Barryhill, on the /ICANN/DNSO/GA list, pointed out that there
are a few domain registrations where the registrar accepted registration
from denizens of the "proscribed countries" list. That registrar,
"Register.Com" in this case, is technically in violation of the law. My
guess is that, they never checked the law, or that list, in the first place.
As US companies, there are certain individuals and countries that we are not
allowed to do business with. Until now, the high-tech community has taken
those laws too lightly. We shouldn't have residents of Libya, for example,
on our client/customer list at all. Routing traffic to those countries
shouldn't be an issue either. It simply shouldn't be done, by a US-based
company. These proscription lists have been around for over 10 years. How
many of us are violating it without knowlege? BTW, all of us that have our
corporate charters from any part of the US are effected by this. Willful
violations can carry some severe penalties.
> Call FBI, have them trace the connections of whoever pays for
> that site.And do what exactly? They have every right to speak, even
if you don't happen to like the message.
Actually, they don't. The law says so. Personally, I have no problems with
US State telling me I can't do business with terrorists. Do you? I actually
think that it's nice that US State is willing to identify, with
verification, terrorist supporting countries, so that I can chose to avoid
doing business with them. It helps a lot when I can point to a US gov
directive prohibiting me from doing business with them. They can't sue me
for discriminatory practices because I'm following the law. On the
flip-side, those of you that have such undiscovered liabilities can exepect
to hear from our government sometime.
It is time to weed through the customer/client lists folks.