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The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

benmetcalfe.com

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Re: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

#41

Post by ErrantX »

Culture clash... looking at the sites screenshot here: http://www.tinynibbles.com/blogarchives/2010/10/official-vb-... (NSFW) I can see how under strict Islamic law that pic would be construed as "obscene, offensive and illegal".

I have... minimal sympathy with these people - a lot of the fault lies with themselves for not understanding the rules, morals and society of the country they were buying from.

I don't think that this generally makes .ly domains any more "unsafe".

(on the other hand; if this is an example of Libya deliberately creating rules to seize domains that is another matter, but at least in this case the complaint seems "legitimate" so we may have to wait and see)

Re: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

#42

Post by davidw »

ErrantX wrote: post #38
davidw wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's as true for Libya/.ly as it is for Germany/.de or China/.cn. I think that you're a lot less likely to run into 'oddities' in Germany than you are in China or Libya.

Think again; German rules for these things are different from UK/US rules (and other European nations) in several significant ways. Particularly in relation to their data protection rules (for example).

Sure, rules differ, but someplace like Germany, you can be pretty confident that things will go through some kind of due process that can be navigated. In places like Libya, I would not really bet a lot of money on that.

Re: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

#43

Post by ErrantX »

davidw wrote: post #42
ErrantX wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think again; German rules for these things are different from UK/US rules (and other European nations) in several significant ways. Particularly in relation to their data protection rules (for example).

Sure, rules differ, but someplace like Germany, you can be pretty confident that things will go through some kind of due process that can be navigated. In places like Libya, I would not really bet a lot of money on that.

Well, maybe.

But you're also running a huge risk because if they find you in violation the fines start to get nasty. We had a client in the UK that was providing hit/redirect statistics, including full IP addresses, to German clients. Under the rules that is illegal - they were fined in the region of millions of euros for it.

Re: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

#44

Post by zumda »

semanticist wrote: post #27
davidw wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just people from the US who read English, you know. Here in Europe, you often find people from two different non-English speaking countries conversing in English because it's what they have in common. I think it's ultimately a bit of a caveat emptor situation though: if they're not going to publish their rules in English, it means you're likely to get screwed. Which is to be expected from a dictatorship run…

For the record: I'm not American, and while I don't self-identify as 'European', Scotland/the UK is considered part of Europe. I know that it's a lingua franca, and that there is a certain expectation that important information online will be in English - but even as someone who only speaks/reads English I think that's an unfair and unreasonable expectation. Regardless of country, if you can't read and understand the…

So sum it up: If you don't know a rule, it still applies to you. If you register a domain in Libya you have to play by their rules and it is your responsibility to try and understand them.

Re: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

#45

Post by dfox »

jacquesm wrote: post #15
vog wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> registering a .nl domain for example requires me to jump through all kinds of hoops, and is more expensive to boot This is quite interesting, because in Germany we have the exact opposite. Here, .de domains are preferable to .com/.net/.org, because .de domains are cheaper, registered more quickly with less bureaucracy and provide better data privacy for the domain holder.

In nl the TLD admin is called SIDN, which officially stands for Stichting Internet Domeinregistratie Nederland, but the situation was/is so bad that they got the nickname Stichting Internet Dominatie Nederland which stands for something entirely different. How it can be 'more quickly' then typing in a name in a form and clicking a mouse is a mystery to me, what do you mean by that?

'more quickly' probably means that german domain registrators can directly register .de domain (and send you an invoice for it, not bill your credit card), while they use some middle-man for generic TLDs. This can cause various unexpected problems.

Re: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

#48

Post by dfox »

retube wrote: post #28
rabble wrote: post #11

I'm not sure if this is a real change to the nic.ly policy or not. It's tricky. They say it was adult content. While vb.ly might not have had any, it was co-owned by Violet Blue, who while she is many wonderful things, she is not islamic. Violet Blue's Website: http://www.tinynibbles.com/ It's not just Libya, the US govt which has ultimate control over .com, .org, .net, .us, .gov, etc... also has some crazy ideas. Ju…

Whether or not adult content was physically hosted by vb.ly or not is really a technicality. If the link results in porn in your browser window...

Well, domain name cannot physically host any meaningful content, for most useful values of 'meaningful content'.

Re: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe

#49

Post by borism »

jrockway wrote: post #29

This is what your firewall is for. If the IP is from Libya, send the packets to the web server that hosts the "Libya is excellent!" page. If it's from the country that your users are in, show them the real content. Technical solutions to social problems sometimes work :)

of course Libya is a mythical country behind mountains higher than Himalayas and has no diplomatic missions anywhere in the world nor are it's officials able to travel let alone Google "violet blue".
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