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Adult .IE Domain Names Banned As Immoral 509

An anonymous reader writes, "The Irish domain prefix, .ie, is controlled by an organization called the IE Domain Registry. In their terms and conditions they state, 'The proposed domain name must not be offensive or contrary to public policy or generally accepted principles of morality.' But this policy is only applied to sex words as this adult webmaster has discovered. Murder.ie is acceptable, Porn.ie is not. Can a word be immoral? And in this day and age, should a government-chosen domain registry be allowed to enforce their own moral code on the public?"
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Adult .IE Domain Names Banned As Immoral

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  • juden-raus.ie (Score:5, Insightful)

    by P(0)(!P(k)+P(k+1)) ( 1012109 ) <math.induction@gmail.com> on Sunday October 15, 2006 @04:26AM (#16442183) Homepage Journal

    From TFS:

    And in this day and age, should a government-chosen domain registry be allowed to enforce their own moral code on the public?
    porn.ie is a poor example, since pornography has been a strict superset of free speech since the 1960's; how about: juden-raus.ie?

    juden-raus.ie, I suspect, would convert many here into willing censors.

    • Re:juden-raus.ie (Score:5, Insightful)

      by donscarletti ( 569232 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @05:00AM (#16442321)
      If pornography was a superset of free speech, strict or otherwise then all free speech would be porn. What you mean is that porn is not a subset of free speech. But I think in Ireland which is fairly conservative IIRC, it might actually be a disjoint set to free speech.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by lixee ( 863589 )
      juden-raus.ie, I suspect, would convert many here into willing censors.
      torture-and-kill-arabs.ie, I suspect, would not raise an eyebrow here.
      • by Minwee ( 522556 )

        torture-and-kill-arabs.ie, I suspect, would not raise an eyebrow here.

        I think that's military-and-intelligence-professionals.us [cnn.com] . Please use plus-good newspeak.

  • Yes? So.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jawtheshark ( 198669 ) * <slashdot@nosPAm.jawtheshark.com> on Sunday October 15, 2006 @04:30AM (#16442201) Homepage Journal

    Isn't this standard procedure for most country TLDs? I just checked for my country:

    From their webpage: [www.dns.lu]

    DEMANDES D'ENREGISTREMENT REJETÉES

    ...

    (c) noms de domaine manifestement contraires à l'ordre public ou aux bonnes moeurs.

    Translation: The proposed domain name must not be offensive or contrary to public policy or generally accepted principles of morality

    Thus, identical to the Ireland registry provisions. The real question here is, why someone would consider "murder" falling into that provision? I clearly don't. You see, this could be a website about prevening murder, or a forum for people seeking help that had a relative murdered. I don't know.
    Also keep in mind that pretty much all "normal" sex-related words should be registrable just because of *that* reason. tits.com used to be about birds (the real, flying kind). Now, I do not know what the porn guy exactly tried to register (just checked the article: it was porn.ie). It would be hard to defend "bondagegirls.ie", but a case for "sex.ie" might be acceptable, if the content clearly is non-sexual. (Well, the applicant was a p0rn peddler, so good luck to that)

    Oh, and I see he owns sex.ie... Now really, it's not as if sex.ie is registrable, so should be murder.ie.... He is complaining about nothing *at all*.

    What I think that happens: the registration process is completely automated and the words just pass through an automated filter which, incidentially, just contains sex-related words. He should try "t1ts.ie" ;-)

    • Sure then what about prawn.ie? Hey! That's not a shrimp!
    • by kv9 ( 697238 )

      Isn't this standard procedure for most country TLDs?

      same thing in Romania. swearwords, etc. are a no-no. for example pula.ro (slang for penis, dick, schlong...) is still free after all these years. and i bet it gets rejected every week.

      ftrules: [rotld.ro]

      33. Reasons for rejecting domain name applications are:
      names incorporating foul languages;
      domainnames with obscene or pornographic words;

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jesus_666 ( 702802 )
      Apparently it isn't for Germany. The DENIC just hast this rule regarding domain names:

      Unzulässig als Domain sind die Bezeichnungen anderer TLDs (wie z. B. .com, .net, .org und sämtliche länderbezogenen TLDs), Buchstabenkombinationen, die in deutschen Kfz-Kennzeichen zur Benennung des Zulassungsbezirks verwendet werden, sowie Zeichenfolgen, die sich ergeben, wenn man in derartigen Buchstabenkombinationen ä durch ae, ö durch oe und ü durch ue ersetzt.

      Translated:

      Inadmissible a

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by radtea ( 464814 )
      It would be hard to defend "bondagegirls.ie"

      Why?

      I mean, it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but clearly some people are turned on by this kind of thing, and so long as it's just a theatre of willing participants what's the problem?

      If it isn't just a theatre of willing participants, then there are crimes being commited that need to be addressed by far stronger means than censoring website names, and anyone who is going to suggest that any resources be spent on censoring website names while such crimes are being
  • by Corbets ( 169101 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @04:38AM (#16442231) Homepage
    As much as I love the country, remember that you're talking about a nation that banned the sale of condoms to minors for a long time. They're simply more conservative over there; I don't believe that makes them wrong (or right, for that matter).
    • by fuzzix ( 700457 ) <flippy@example.com> on Sunday October 15, 2006 @05:58AM (#16442515) Journal
      As much as I love the country, remember that you're talking about a nation that banned the sale of condoms to minors for a long time. They're simply more conservative over there; I don't believe that makes them wrong (or right, for that matter).

      I believe it makes them wrong but then I live here. Things have improved of late. I've noticed around the college I'm studying at now that safe sex is promoted heavily - even more than last year. I think there's been a realisation that promoting safe sex isn't promoting casual sex. I know when I'm looking at that chlamidya poster in the toilets I don't care if I never get laid again (althought that soon passes) ;).

      As for the .ie domain? Who cares? They priced themselves out of the market [wikipedia.org] a long time ago - only larger businesses can afford them anyway. The current management of the .ie domain seems to run contrary to the overriding trend of making communications infrastructure more accessible - it took serious government pressure to make affordable broadband available in even the most densely populated areas. It was laughable when Ireland was dubbed by the government as the "e-hub of Europe" [google.ie] when most of the population who wanted to connect to the outside world were paying per minute for flakey dialup.

      In summary, is Ireland a conservative, moralistic hellhole? Yes, but it's getting better. We no longer export pregnant teens and force them to surrender their children for adoption!
    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by johnfatz ( 868269 )
      They're simply more conservative over there; I don't believe that makes them wrong (or right, for that matter).

      My dear man what are you talking about?! I'm from Ireland and you have not been here in a while if that's what ya think!

      Also compared to the US (I'm guessing your american - forgive me if your not) I think calling Ireland conservative is comical! FOX NEWS anyone?!

      Ireland has come out of a more conservative age and in the past 15 years has improved leaps and bounds regarding this kind of thing. E
  • Murder.ie is acceptable, Porn.ie is not.

    That is disgusting. If true, I feel that IE Domain Registry is revealing their own sickness by enforcing such as bizarre standard.

  • What about /.ing it? Is it ironic if it is /.'ed?
  • We are talking about the country where reading Playboy was illegal only a few years ago, check out the wikipedia page for the whole censoring frenzy [wikipedia.org].
    • Sit Down Young Lad (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ObsessiveMathsFreak ( 773371 ) <obsessivemathsfreak.eircom@net> on Sunday October 15, 2006 @07:50AM (#16442945) Homepage Journal
      Let me tell you a little something about Ireland.

      Yeah it's all true. Playboy was Illegal, along with condoms and being homosexual until 1993. Yes 1993. Prior to thise, people were still selling playboys, condonms and being homosexual, but it was in fact illegal. We don't actually have an explicit right to freedom of speech in this country. In the Irish constitution, most if not all personal rights are, to use the exact phrase, "subject to public order and morality". Oy'veh!

      Anyway, it's not like that over here anymore. Long story short, people got relatively wealthy and now have the money to be as debauched and decandent as they like, hence the laws got changed. The current Taoiseach of the country, that's the Prime Minister, is divorced and living with his girlfriend. Or he was at any rate, while still Taoiseach. He might have married her. Might. So no we are not currently talking about a conservative catholic theocracy anymore. Because it was a conservative catholic theocracy at one point. I've got witnesses who can testify to that.

      However! There's still a lot of old guard catholic dead wood hanging around. The kind who thought that Vatican II was an opening of the floodgates of sin. They're here and there, usually in minor offical positions that they obtained through their connections to government. "Pillars of the Community" had a lot of government connections over here, mostly because everyone else had emigrated.

      Anyway, these kind of officals tend not only to be catholics, they are very often members of some subversive catholic organisation like Opus Dei or the Knights of Columbanus. I believe the attoreny general in the infamous X case [wikipedia.org] was a member of the latter. Think Pat Robertson, only without the TV show. Trust me, these guys are the real pros, Robertson's just a wannabe.

      Anyway, it's highly likely that someone of that ilk is running the .ie registry. In fact it's almost certain as they tend to be incompetant misers and .ie domain names are about $90 a year. So on behalf of the country, I formally apologise for this disgrace. We'd get rid of them, but ironically, the smaller the country, the harder it is to dislodge the dead wood from office.
  • Public policy (Score:2, Insightful)

    by valkoinen ( 81260 )
    Slavery, apartheid, imprisoning and executing unwanted people. These have all been public policy at one time or another. If we base our decisions on "public policy" instead of freedom of expression and liberty we are on the way to totalitarianism.
    • by ari_j ( 90255 )
      I think that you have trends that are later less popular and totalitarianism confused. Ireland is a republic, and as such there is political accountability for the .ie TLD not allowing pornography-related domain names. If you don't like the rule, elect a new government that will reverse it. In a totalitarian state, one man would have made this decision and there would be no way short of military coup to change his mind about it.

      Totalitarianism is orthogonal to all of the things you listed as examples
  • I wonder... (Score:2, Funny)

    by phagstrom ( 451510 )
    he proposed domain name must not be offensive
    ...why is offensive.ie not allowed? :-)

  • murder.ie? (Score:5, Funny)

    by zecg ( 521666 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @05:09AM (#16442339)
    Nice domain, would've been really cool during the browser wars.
  • by DJFelix ( 468187 )
    The fact of the matter is that you are purchasing a service, and as the providers of the service they are allowed to set the rules. If they wanted to set the rules such that every domain must start with the letters "ie" they could, and I don't see any reason they shouldn't. It is their service, and they should be allowed to set the terms. Period.

    The truth of the matter is that if enough people didn't like it, they wouldn't sell enough domains to stay profitable, and they would be forced to change.

    I'm sur
    • by DrFaustos25 ( 788264 ) <(moc.liamg) (ta) (sllib.s.egroeg)> on Sunday October 15, 2006 @05:54AM (#16442493)

      The countries domain is a service provided for the country; privatized or not, it's supposed to be run in the interests of the people. If enough people of Ireland feel that their countries service isn't what they want then they have every right to demand that the government improve that service, again, privatized or not. They shouldn't have to use another countries domain name when their own government is supposed to be providing their citizens with a service that the majority of them like.

      Would you argue the same about other privatized services? Water? Transport? "If you don't like it, use someone else?" In a lot of countries there is no viable competitor, and in this case, if Irish people want an Irish domain (surprise!) then they have no other service to go to.

      Maybe the majority of them want the restrictions, and that's their choice. But you don't get to shut down the argument over whether or not this is a good choice by simply spouting some inanity about the market deciding blah blah blah. If the citizens want their own countries domain rules to change, they should.

    • The truth of the matter is that if enough people didn't like it, they wouldn't sell enough domains to stay profitable, and they would be forced to change.

      If I was a part of an ethnic, moral, sexual or religious minority and the majority of people (including the government in a democratic country) thought like you do, I would be in serious trouble. Who gives a fuck about the minorities as long as the majority votes for us?!

    • No, you miss the point. They have been granted exclusive rights to a national TLD. It's not theirs to do whatever they want with - that right belongs to the Republic of Ireland.

      Perhaps I'm going a bit far with this, but anytime a monopoly abuses its position in ways that are illegal or immoral, someone on Slashdot claims it's fine because they've earned it or are otherwise allowed to do whatever they want to make money.
  • I've had it! I'm switching to .ff!
  • In greece, when you register a .gr domain , although it is activated right away for you to use, it awaits approval from the EETT regulating authority. Their policy is to not approve anything that they find 'offending' or 'immoral'.

    For example there was a website called bourdela.gr (bourdela is 'whorehouses' in greek) that had a directory of all whorehouses in Greece. They operated for a few months and then EETT decided it should not approve this domain and the website had to go to a com domain.

    This is on

    • by ColaMan ( 37550 )
      With .gr domains you may very well get fucked months later (after you've spent money to make people remember your domain)

      With the case of the bourdela domain that you cited, is that not its purpose?
      Months later is a bit of stretch though. Unless you wrote down a few addresses in your little black book or something. :-)
  • by Ron Bennett ( 14590 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @05:40AM (#16442441) Homepage
    .US bans various domains too for similar reasons, such as FuckCensorship.US

    For the timebeing, along with others, it's in perpetual limbo:

    http://www.whois.us/whois.cgi?TLD=us&dn=fuckcensor ship.us&TYPE=DOMAIN [whois.us]

    Ron
  • by Bertie ( 87778 )
    They've come a long way in the last decade or so, but when it comes to matters of morality, Ireland's been lagging behind much of the rest of the Western world. It might call itself a republic, but in effect it was run like a Catholic theocracy till not too long ago, with the government taking its lead from the Church, and the Church doing pretty much whatever it pleased, until people started to see them for the bullies, racketeers and paedophiles they all-too-often were and they lost some of their grip on
    • There is a term for matters such as these its called an irish answer to an irish problem, you see the Uk and ireland have a close relationship and even before the EEC the Irish and British were free to come and go pretty much as they pleased between each others countrys.

      Anyway the irish solution to divorce was for the husband to move over to England for a while and divorce his wife from there and the divorce is recognised in Ireland. Similarly an Irish woman while being prevented from seeking an abortion i
  • by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @05:46AM (#16442459) Homepage Journal
    "should a government-chosen domain registry be allowed to enforce their own moral code on the public?"

    yes.

    your right to free speech does not:
    1. extend to other countries
    2. usually does not extend to material unsuitable for minors, depending on the situation and audience.
    (like creepy domainnames for porn site)
    3. does not extend to other things, like slander, libel, false advertising, misrepresentation, etc.

    mostly your right to free speech is there to criticize the government(your own government), it's not there so you can download child porn.

    If you want to get upset, having a nazi.xx domain is illegal in most European countries. but as far as I know it is legal in the US. WHOIS for: nazi.com [dnsstuff.com], nazi.org [dnsstuff.com]

    I personally find domains like IHR.ORG and VHO.ORG far more offensive, they belong to Holocaust denial groups. Relastically we should ban those domains before we ban BIGJUICYSLUTS.COM (is that a real domain? I bet it is)
    • We really need a kiddy porn equivalent of Godwin's Law that is applicable whenever someone implies that anybody who favours privacy, anonymity, freedom of speech or any other equivalent idea is just doing it for the child porn.
  • The Irish domain prefix, .ie, is controlled by an organization called the IE Domain Registry

    No wonder I've never come across an Irish website! I'll have to use -A flag in the future.

  • by Max Threshold ( 540114 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @06:10AM (#16442557)
    But I'll still let your mom be on it.
  • by ettlz ( 639203 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @06:56AM (#16442737) Journal
    quick.ie
  • "I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I uh, I think is important. I love..as I say, they're my work, they're my play, they're my passion. Words are all we have really.

    We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. You know, [humming]. And, then we assign a word to a thought, [clicks tongue]. And we're stuck with that word for that thought. So be careful with words. I like to think, yeah, the same words that hurt can heal. It's a matter of how you pick them
  • You can onl register a personal domain with your initials and two digits after that eg JohnSMith can get js01.ie and he you have to demonstrate a "Real and Substantive Connection" to Ireland. After that companies with Irish links, state agencies, schools and politicians (and a few more categories) can register a domain. So this ban will only affect those who managed to register a company or trademark with an "offensive" name or try to make use of the "Discretionary Name" category. Look here for more detail
  • The Slashdot blurb asks some reasonable questions but misses the crux of the matter.

    The government is in charge of the "official" .ie registry. Like any state, the Irish government has no useful metric for figuring out what the "right thing to do" is, nor do they have any particular interest in doing so. Whatever they do will please some and piss of others, with those others having no useful recourse to change things.

    However, no one's forcing you to use the Irish state's .ie registry. The Internet is a de-c
  • The proposed domain name must not be offensive or contrary to public policy or generally accepted principles of morality

    How can it be that after a 2000 year history of anything from book burning, illegitimacy, sexual escapades, and torture to mass murder and genocide in the Catholic church, people can still fall for the belief that repression and suppression are means of improving morality?

    See this for what it is: an attempt to get control over people by keeping them in fear of knowledge and basic biologica
  • Can a word be immoral?

    Yes, depending on who you ask, words can be immoral, but I don't think a domain registry should act on it.
  • TFA says:
    No one is going to go to porn.ie thinking it's a children's bookshop.
    OMG! They must've thought he wanted to typo-squat the word pony. [omg.pon.ie]

    Stroller.

  • by 4D6963 ( 933028 ) on Sunday October 15, 2006 @09:25AM (#16443361)

    It's pretty much like asking "Is God fair?". I only hope you don't expect an objective answer, because morals are just as subjective as religious beliefs (and please don't hit me back with a Wikipedia link to an article about moral absolutism or moral objectivism).

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