FC: United Nations weighs Web site "permits"; more on gambling case

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

<x-flowed>Other noteworthy UN regulatory ideas:
   http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32711,00.html
   http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20705.html
Some (now-outdated) links to anonymity info:
   http://www.well.com/user/declan/nym/
An somewhat outdated piece I wrote four years ago:
   http://eff.org/pub/Publications/Declan_McCullagh/iu.plague.073196.article
   "A victory in the CDA case would, in a sense, turn the U.S. into a safe
    haven for controversial content from all over the world."

-Declan


>From: Adam Powell <apowell@freedomforum.org>
>To: "'declan@well.com'" <declan@well.com>
>Subject: UN body considers permits for the Net
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 09:22:59 -0500
>
>once you start down that road...
>
>FEBRUARY 16, 22:52 EST
>
>  Internet Racism Spurs Concern at UN
>
>  By GEIR MOULSON
>  Associated Press Writer
>
>  GENEVA (AP) - The United States could do more to curb the use of the
>Internet
>  for racist material while upholding freedom of speech, experts said at a
>U.N.
>  meeting Wednesday.
>
>  ``New forms of communications technology such as the Internet are being
>used
>  to support the dissemination of racial hatred,'' Mary Robinson, the U.N.
>High
>  Commissioner for Human Rights, told participants in a three-day seminar on
>  racism.
...
>  ``The United States has developed into a safe haven for racists spreading
>their
>  word worldwide by using the Internet,'' Swiss-based information technology
>law
>  expert David Rosenthal said in a paper submitted to the conference, which
>started
>  Wednesday.

...

>  Although the U.S. government cannot ban racist speech outright, it could
>impose
>  ``reasonable restrictions,'' such as requiring a permit that would force
>publishers
>  to identify the content of their sites, Rosenthal argued.
>
>  A possible strategy to deal with Internet hate sites could be based on
>whether they
>  amount to discrimination, an area where U.S. law is strict, he said.

*************

>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 08:28:58 -0500
>From: Laurence Sutter <lsutter@generalmedia.com>
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win98; I)
>X-Accept-Language: en
>To: declan@well.com
>Subject: Re: FC: US prosecutes operator of legal overseas gambling site
>
>
>
>     He's being prosecuted in the Southern District of New York. For an 
> in-depth analysis of the issues, inspired by this prosecution, see 
> Keller, The Game's The Same: Why Gambling in Cyberspace Violates Federal 
> Law, 108 YALE L.J. 1569 (1999).

****************

>From: MerrittDC@aol.com
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 09:45:56 EST
>Subject: Re: FC: US prosecutes operator of legal overseas gambling site
>To: declan@well.com
>
>DeClan --
>
>The trial is taking place in the United States District Court for the
>Southern District of New York.  With respect to where Jay Cohen was living,
>he was communiting back and forth from the US to Antigua.  When he was
>indicted along with 22 others for violating the Wire Act, he returned to the
>states voluntarily to stand trial.
>
>World Wise Sports Exchange is licensed and regulated by the Government of
>Antigua.
>FYI.
>
>David Safavian

**************

Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 08:02:29 -0800
>To: declan@well.com
>From: Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>
>Subject: Re: FC: US prosecutes operator of legal overseas gambling site
>
>Its strange that these offshore operators appear not to have learned to 
>shield themselves through the usual offshore holding company methods.  My 
>understanding is that if a corporation has more than 25 shareholders 
>(e.g., 25 offshore corporations) then it is assumed, under U.S. federal 
>law, to not be closely held.  Only the officers (and not the owners) of 
>non-closely held corporations can be charged with criminal 
>conduct.  Establishing such corporations, in non-MLAT countries, as the 
>owners should do the trick.
>
>--Steve

*************

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