
 .Cat Domain a Casualty in Catalonian Independence Crackdown - pera
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/cat-domain-casualty-catalonian-independence-crackdown
======
sctb
Related discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296359](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15296359)

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fabianmg
The .cat domain was seized because the organization in charge of the domain
IGNORED the orders issued by a JUDGE. So saying: > "If such content is
unlawful, a court order directed to the publisher or host of that content is
the appropriate way for authorities to deal with that illegality, rather than
the blanket removal of entire domains from the Internet."

Is simply put, bulshit. A court ordered taking down illegal calls to a
referendum not approved by a democratic consitution. If that was ignored,
someone had to take action.

~~~
Oletros
> The .cat domain was seized because the organization in charge of the domain
> IGNORED the orders issued by a JUDGE.

What orders ignored? Do you have any link to newspapers?

And, by the way, PuntCAT is a TLD register, they don't host any site.

Do you know other case where the TLD registar has been seized? Domains are
blocked via ISP's, the publisher or the hosting.

~~~
sigotirandolas
As far as I know, no newspaper has published anything that indicates that the
puntCAT foundation ignored a clear order by a judge to censor a domain (though
it is possible that they did). It's also possible that this is part of the
open blanket investigation of anything the Catalan government does about the
referendum.

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BugsJustFindMe
Before anyone goes rushing off to make sure that their favorite (nyan?) .cat
domain is still up:

> _... .cat domains not connected with the October 1 referendum (including
> eff.cat, EFF 's little-known Catalan language website) have not been
> affected._

A more accurate title might have been "Individual .cat domains promoting
sedition casualties in...", which is not what it currently seems like it
means.

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fabianmg
Also, the didn't government didn't ruled the referendum illegal a
constitutional COURT did it. And the detentions and search were ordered by a
JUDGE from Barcelona that not long ago was awarded by the same Catalan
government that now is criticizing him.

Please read this to know the facts:
[https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/09/20/inenglish/1505917320_78...](https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/09/20/inenglish/1505917320_788824.html)

~~~
toast0
A court is an arm of the Kingdom of Spain, and a judge is a Kingdom employee.
In US parlance, where the EFF is based, we would say the court is an arm of
the government, and the judge is a government employee, thus this is a
government action.

In European parlance, 'the government' often means the currently in-power
group of legislative representatives, which causes much confusion in the US
when we hear 'a new government was formed in X', or 'the government will be
dissolved in Y'.

~~~
faragon
Spanish King has no actual power, we have a democratic monarchy.

~~~
tbatchelli
Monarchies are not democratic. Unless I can vote the King, that is.

~~~
skwirl
What if your elected representatives can vote to abolish the royalty?

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tbatchelli
Good point. I believe you could.

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enriquto
It is interesting to note that Assange and Snowden seem very interested in the
catalan issue these last days.

[https://mobile.twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/911226994846...](https://mobile.twitter.com/JulianAssange/status/911226994846814208)

[https://mobile.twitter.com/Snowden/status/910888878948700160](https://mobile.twitter.com/Snowden/status/910888878948700160)

~~~
faragon
According to El Pais (first Spanish generalist -i.e. non-sports- newspaper in
audience), the Russian intelligence is behind the support to Catalan
separatists, like before pushed for the Brexit, Trump, and Le Pen:
[https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2017/09/22/actualidad/1...](https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2017/09/22/actualidad/1506101626_670033.html)

~~~
enriquto
I understand that many people here dislike El Pais; but please, do not link
continuously at their most outrageusly ridiculous articles. There are still
reasonable writers there. Not many, of course, but they are still there.

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faragon
.cat domains work properly, e.g.
[http://www.elperiodico.cat](http://www.elperiodico.cat) (tested from
Barcelona)

TL;DR: if you break the law, expect to get punished. The operators knew they
were breaking the law, so involved sites in that domain were blocked. I.e. not
a ".cat" generic blockage, but a specific action driven from a court.

~~~
princekolt
Did you even read the article? Or did you just jerk-reply in an effort to
criticize people or the movement?

> First, the content in question here is essentially political speech, which
> the European Court of Human Rights has ruled as deserving of a higher level
> of protection than some other forms of speech. Even though the speech
> concerns a referendum that has been ruled illegal, the speech does not in
> itself pose any imminent threat to life or limb.

What the Spanish government did is considered censorship under any reasonable
system of law. Justifying one "wrong" with another is not gonna get anyone
anywhere anytime. But since the Spanish government is fond of censorship, this
reaction shouldn't come as a surprise.

~~~
fabianmg
There's a system of law in Spain, is called the constitution. And the
unilateral call for seccession or doing a referendum not allowed by the
constitution or the courts is not allowed in any democracy.

I'm in favor of a referendum so the catalans can decide if they want to be in
Spain or not. But I'm not in favor of a unilateral decision.

~~~
tbatchelli
Yeah, my grandfather was also given a death sentence under the rule of the
law, because of his political ideas. That was Spain. Laws can be immoral.
Breaking immoral laws is a duty of everyone. Now these immoral laws are
applied to Catalans who want to vote, but next it can be you.

Women wouldn't be voting if they never broke the law first.

Giving a Tax amnesty to very rich tax dodgers (as the current Spanish
government has done recently) has been ruled to be against the Rule of The Law
and the Spanish Constitution, yes? Who is going to jail for this? No one.

The constitution only matters when it matters to some.

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snvzz
What happened here:

\- judge told .cat TLD to take over some domains, setting them to display a
spanish police landing page.

\- .cat complied.

\- Judge told .cat TLD to censor any domain that does support the referendum
in any way.

\- .cat replied that they run a TLD, that it's not their job to act as a
censorship agency, inspecting each domain and disabling those that host
websites that talk about topics that a judge specified are forbidden.

\- .cat notified the ICANN of the situation they're in:
[https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/lineros...](https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/lineros-
to-marby-17sep17-en.pdf)

\- police raided the TLD office, and arrested its CTO at his home.

