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GoDaddy Caves To Irish Legal Threat
crush writes, "An Irish website RateYourSolicitor.com, which aims to let clients find and rate solicitors (a British Isles flavor of lawyer), has received an Irish High Court injunction to remove defamatory material about one such rated solicitor. The site is hosted by a US provider, gmax.net, which has reportedly been served notice by lawyers acting for the defamed solicitor. According to the article, GoDaddy, as the domain name registrar, has locked access to the site (registration or bugmenot required). (Amusingly, the records are all for a 'John Smith' in the Russian Federation at 'lawyercatcher@lawyer.com'!) An interesting twist to all of this is that according to the Communications Decency Act, an ISP, as a publisher, cannot be held responsible or legally liable for what their clients do. So how can GoDaddy justify this censorship? Or are registrars the weak link in a system that seems like it ought to be robust against censorship?"
If this really is censorship (and if it isn't why didn't they just go get a defamation judgement entered in the US and get the site host to take it down?) it would certainly be nice if GoDaddy stood up to it. However, standing up to legal challenges takes a lot of money and when they are only getting 8.95 for your domain they can hardly afford to defend these legal cases.
Frankly you get what you pay for. I'm a happy GoDaddy customer but I if I wanted a registrar who will stand up under legal challenges I don't think it would be unreasonable to switch to a registrar who charges more per domain.
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
So find yourself another host. One with pockets so deep they don't have to worry about limiting their exposure. Good luck on that one.
>why should the legal sector be held to a higher standard?
= 17&did=442).
A car mechanic who does a bad job can waste money and cause inconvenience. Lawers abusing the system can shut down entire industries, for example light aircraft manufacturing.
An electrician who does a bad job can make someone's house burn down. A lawyer who does a bad job can let a client go to Death Row (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid
A floor tile installer who does a bad job can shake someone's faith in floor tile installers. A lawyer who does a bad job can shake the trust in the court system that holds society together.
We need free speech zones on the internet that do not depend on corporations or Government.
i ne Speech.
It's called your computer. Specifically, for you, the one you own.
You have the Freedom of Speech. Nowhere is it written that you have Freedom of Easy-to-Access Speech or the Freedom of Everyone-has-to-help-you-so-ISP's-gimme-a-cable-l
"My God...it's full of trolls!"
Since when did the the F (as in Federal) CC have jurisdiction in Ireland, you daft cunt?
There is a difference betweeen denying service at request, and denying service after a client has been accepted and paid for his services.
No landlord, once the person has signed a lease, is allowed to evict their tenant for things like voting habits, their tendency to protest their favorite political party, their tendency to denounce the company they work for, etc.
If they tried it they could be sued into destitution.
The same thing with wrongful termination. While empolyers have the right to not hire you, once you are hired theyre not allowed to fire you for things like the hobbies you keep in your spare time or your political affiliation.
Finally, and most importantly, with increased power or wealth comes increased responsibility. Webhosting companies, like corporations who dominate a geographic area in terms of employment opportunity, estensibly have power rivaling a government and carrying the same weight.. as such they should be held to the same constitutional standards as the government, otherwise those constitutional guarantees don't mean jack.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
While I agree with you, this example isn't a good one:
A car mechanic who does a bad job can waste money and cause inconvenience.
Said car mechanic could potentially cause death and destruction, if their work screws up the car's brakes or accelerator, etc. In fact, even the bad floor tile installer could lead to someone being injured (or even killed, if particularly unlucky), if they slip or trip on the tiles.
All the examples you quote could lead to people dying. I agree, though, that in terms of maximum likely damage, lawyers have greater potential to do harm.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Tell me, Mr. Infernal,
...
Technically speaking, using the rules of English, that's Mr. Device. Be that as it may
what good is a phone call... if you are unable to speak?
Let's see here. There's pen and paper (could get your hands lopped off or perhaps your eyes gouged out) or ultimately, you can still walk out the door and communicate directly with your supplicants.
I get the general gist of your argument - really, I do. But you need to understand that no one person, corporation, business, or other entity is required to help you with whatever your mission is. Count yourself lucky that for the most part, these businesses aren't too worried about it - it's a side effect of the communications business that you have the ability to spread your screed over a wide area.
But it doesn't have to be that way and you should not count on it if what you have to say is particularly disturbing to the rest of society (or even some small part of it - as long as it's influential). Ultimately, you are only guaranteed the Freedom, not the means to utilize it in a convenient manner.
"My God...it's full of trolls!"
Yeah, I used to think like that as well. Free speech doesn't apply to corporations or private web sites and all that.
However, do you really want to live in a place where Freedom of Speech is merely a hypothetical idea rather than a practical truth? Is the US really a better place than China, Russia or any other country when freedom of speech only exists when it doesn't offend anyone? Do you have freedom of speech if anyone can shut down your speech?
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
How is it relavant that he's conservative? Is this person somehow more evil than a liberal making his fortune from domain squatting? If you're going to put it in there, you should explain it, unless you're just trolling.
-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
It could be seen as a trolling attempt because you appear to offer the opinion that being conservative is a bad thing, and associated with domain squatting. People who are conservatives may not share the same view. The only purpose including the man political leanings could serve is to inflame, and thus troll.
Your turn.
-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."