[LINK] Ars: 'US seizes domain name of Spanish company selling Cuba trips'

[Stephen Edgar]

Wikileaks are also not happy...

<snip>
Wikileaks calls for 'Internet death penality' over domain censorship by US registrar eNom.

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/WIKILEAKS.INFO_censored_by_eNom_and_Demand_Media

On the 28th of February, 2008 while everyone was paying attention to the WIKILEAKS.ORG censorship case, another Wikileaks domain, WIKILEAKS.INFO was unlawfully locked and seized. The domain name registrar at issue is the world's second largest, eNom, Inc of Bellevue, Washington with 8.6 million internet domains names under its "control".

The company is the same eNom, Inc. as cited in the March 4, 2007 edition of New York Times last week for censoring a Spanish travel company with flights to Cuba.
</snip>

Regards,

Stephen Edgar
Netweb Interactive
stephen at netweb.com.au

ps. I'll submit it to the list this time :P

-----Original Message-----
From: link-bounces at anumail0.anu.edu.au [mailto:link-bounces at anumail0.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Roger Clarke
Sent: Tuesday, 11 March 2008 12:47 PM
To: link at anu.edu.au
Cc: Michael Froomkin; Paul.Twomey at icann.org
Subject: [LINK] Ars: 'US seizes domain name of Spanish company selling Cuba trips'

>US seizes domain name of Spanish company selling Cuba trips
>By Joel Hruska | Published: March 07, 2008 - 04:36PM CT
>http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080307-us-interferes-with-travel-to-cuba.html
>[Text of article below]

[A .com domain-name operated by a Brit working in Spain has been
de-registered because the business promoted holidays in Cuba.

[The credibility of the .com domain as an international one is in tatters.

[ICANN needs to use the embarrassment arising from this ridiculous
intrusion to get itself cast adrift from the US Dept of Commerce's
apron-strings, and shift its operations from the US to a country that
meddles less in international affairs.

[Interestingly, http://www.icannwatch.org has disappeared from the Web.
[The most recent entry at http://www.archive.org is 8 Nov 07.



>US seizes domain name of Spanish company selling Cuba trips
>By Joel Hruska | Published: March 07, 2008 - 04:36PM CT
>http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080307-us-interferes-with-travel-to-cuba.html

>The United States has often presented itself as the guardian of Internet
>free speech. China may censor the Internet, and otherwise-civilized
>nations such as Germany or France may attempt to block what they view as
>unacceptable material, but the United States of America likes to think
>of itself as a place that doesn't censor people online... unless you
>happen to own a foreign travel business that offers trips to Cuba. Under
>such circumstances, as Steve Marshall discovered, all bets are off.
>
>Steve Marshall is a British citizen living in Spain. For the past
>decade, he has operated an online travel agency that specializes in
>selling trips to Cuba to various European nationals. Marshall operated a
>number of Cuban-specific web sites, including several that focused
>specifically on the literary and historical aspects of Cuba, and
>maintained them in English, French, and Spanish. The Internet Archive
>has some of Marshall's web material on file. The sites themselves don't
>appear to have been particularly well-designed-both Flash and text ads
>abound-but there's no evidence that Marshall failed to provide the
>services he advertised.
>
>According to the Department of the Treasury, however, Marshall and his
>business helped Americans evade the US embargo against Cuba. A 2004 DoT
>(Department of the Treasury) press release stated: "This travel provider
>is not only a generator of resources that the Cuban regime uses to
>oppress its people, but it also facilitates the evasion of U.S. sanction
>policy." The PR goes on to assert that Tour and Marketing International
>Ltd. (Marshall's company) advertised itself as the number one agency for
>American travelers, claimed it could serve any traveler, and insisted
>that Americans interested in traveling to Cuba use the company's online
>payment system.
>
>Marshall's domain name registrar, eNom, is based in the US. It
>apparently didn't learn that his company had been blacklisted for two
>and a half years. When it did, however, the registrar promptly shut down
>Marshall's sites without notification and has since refused to release
>the domain names to him. Marshall has since rebuilt his business using a
>European registrar and the .net rather than the .com suffix, but his
>experience raises troubling questions.
>
>As previously noted, Marshall is a British citizen operating a business
>from Spain, with servers located in the Bahamas. He does not claim that
>no Americans ever visited Cuba, but he has stated that he was
>uninterested in marketing his services to the US. In this case, the
>Department of the Treasury was able to shut down his business without
>notification or negotiation of any sort. Even if he wanted to appeal the
>decision, Marshall has no organization to which he can appeal, save his
>registrar, which can simply claim to have been following government
>orders.
>
>If the US intends to continue presenting itself as the guardian of
>Internet rights, situations like this require a bit more delicacy. By
>effectively shutting down Marshall's business, the United States has
>committed the censorship it condemns in other nations. Even worse, the
>Department of Treasury effectively shut down an international business
>without any type of due process. Both France and Germany followed a
>court process when investigating Yahoo for alleged improprieties, and
>the company in question (Yahoo) had the opportunity to respond to the
>charges in a court of law. Marshall was afforded no such luxury.
>
>While the Internet may be global in nature, foreign companies may very
>well limit their use of US registrars and hosting services out of
>concern that activities targeted at other countries could be shut down
>here.


--
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
_______________________________________________
Link mailing list
Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link