[ga] GoDaddy Caves To Irish Legal Threat

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

See:
 http://www.rateyoursolicitor.com/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solicitor
 http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1689617&issue_id=14654

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Decency_Act

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@xxxxxxxxxx'!) 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?

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obediance of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is
very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
===============================================================
Updated 1/26/04
CSO/DIR. Internet Network Eng. SR. Eng. Network data security
IDNS. div. of Information Network Eng.  INEG. INC.
ABA member in good standing member ID 01257402
E-Mail jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
 Registered Email addr with the USPS
Contact Number: 214-244-4827