So, about that amendment...

[blufive]

Read this (it won't take long)

Then read this (which will take longer, but will explain why the first one was so short)

For afters, go read this. This final one's a bit different. Try to work out what he did to piss anyone off.

[links: yonmei, BoingBoing]

[edit: libertango points out the stuff I was too tired to pay attention to last night: namely, yellowtimes.org is based in Canada and therefore can't claim first amendment protection. That said, it's far from the first time a site got yanked because Someone Important Leaned On Their ISP]

[edit again: libertango has also graced my comments section with a detailed counterpoint to my doom-and-gloom conspiracy-mongering]

Comments

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

"edit: libertango points out the stuff I was too tired to pay attention to last night: namely, yellowtimes.org is based in Canada and therefore can't claim first amendment protection. That said, it's far from the first time a site got yanked because Someone Important Leaned On Their ISP"

You're right, it wouldn't be the first time that's happened. However, there's also no evidence it's happened this time, either. For two reasons:

* Tech nitpick: The problem wasn't with YellowTimes' ISP, which is who gives them access to the Net. It was with their Domain Registrar, which is who allows the rest of the Net to see IP such-and-such when one types in www.yellowtimes.org A fine distinction, but still.

* As I originally pointed out, the owner of YellowTimes' Domain Registrar, GoDaddy.com, is Bob Parsons (https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/about.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from%5Fapp=). Parsons first made his money when his accounting software, MoneyCounts, was sold to Intuit/Quicken. But his first product was a management package for churches, and he also sold a digital copy of the Bible for quite some time (QuickVerse).

In other words, it's entirely possible that Parsons shut down YellowTimes not because of any government pressure, not because he was "leaned on", but simply because he felt like it. And the Registrar agreement that GoDaddy uses is written is such a way that such a personal whim would be wholly within the bounds of the contract.

If one now goes to YellowTimes (http://www.yellowtimes.org/), what one sees is the following:

"Welcome to YellowTimes.org. Currently our site is down while we upgrade our servers... Please check back in a few days."

Translation: We're looking for a Domain Registrar we can live with, and who can live with us.

Morals of the story: Sometimes, cut-rate is just that, and you get what you pay for. And it never hurts to read the fine print.