In an era when governments are becoming increasingly active in regulating online activities, the Bodog.com case provides a warning that by using popular dot-com domain names, companies and registrants are effectively opting-in to U.S. law and courts as part of the package.
Should we become isaacbrocksociety.ca?
@Blaze, I think it would be a good idea. I honestly fear that this site could end up being monitored by the ‘grey’ men because it could be deemed subversive. Call me paranoid, but there you have it, LOL.
Also agree with the domain name change for the site. I’ve recently switched all of my e-mail accounts from Gmail, Yahoo etc for European alternatives. (Note: Especially Gmail, since I find their new privacy settings to be horrid as of last week). I was usually offered the choice of, at GMX for example, @gmx.fr or @gmx.com. I always chose the local European domain name (.de, .be, etc) thinking that it offered more protection “just because”. Looks like I might not have been far off!
Folks, with all due respect, this conversation is a little ridiculous. You can be as sure as Presidential candidates stabbing each other in the back one day and singing each other’s praises the next that this site has been monitored since Day One. A different domain will do absolutely nothing to impede or discourage “the authorities” from reading our posts, tracing our individual IP addresses or even pulling-up in front of our homes if they really want to. What is currently legal for them to do is only a tiny subset of what they CAN do and, indeed, DO. If you are uncomfortable with that idea, then maybe you should stay off the Internet entirely. And please don’t ever admit that you have a Facebook account – it’s only the very first place “the man” goes to these days to accomplish in seconds what once took days or weeks of effort.
This is a public forum and, as such, offers about as much privacy as a chat with your friends at your local shopping mall food court.
I think I saw somewhere some website hosting providers marketing the “no link to the US” angle. 🙂 I don’t really blame them.
I don’t gamble. Every time I have played Blackjack at the casinos in Louisiana, I have lost. BUT Bodog wasn’t breaking any laws where they were located. And the US takes control of the domain before there is any trial or guilt proven. I don’t agree with this.
The best thing anyone can do — including Petros for this site — is to block all access from the internal US-based IP addresses. That way no one can be accused of trying to stir up dissent.