Belarus Curtails Internet Access

[Sam_b]

From BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16407235


Belarus puts restrictions on foreign internet sites

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/57685000/jpg/_57685293_charterweb464.jpg The opposition Charter 97 website was disabled by hackers last month
Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16407235?print=true#story_continues_1) Related Stories



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A new law in Belarus will restrict access to foreign websites and force internet clubs and cafes to report users visiting sites registered abroad.
The law, which takes effect on Friday, says anyone selling goods or services to Belarus citizens on the web must use the .by Belarusian domain name.
That would make it illegal for firms like Amazon or eBay to sell goods to customers in Belarus.
Fines for breaking the law range as high as 1m Belarus rubles (£77; $120).
The law says people offering internet services to the public - whether at a cafe, club or in their own home - will face fines if their customers visit foreign websites and such visits are not properly recorded and reported.
Anyone found accessing "extremist" or "pornographic" websites will also be fined, the law says.
President Alexander Lukashenko has been in power in the ex-Soviet republic since 1994.
His muzzling of the opposition has been condemned by the EU and US, who have imposed travel bans and asset freezes on him and dozens of his associates.
Dissidents targeted At the end of December the Belarus opposition website Charter 97, run from outside Belarus, was disabled by a cyber attack.
The site's chief editor Natalya Radzina told the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists that the attackers had deleted archives and posted a false news story about opposition presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov.
Last May Mr Sannikov, co-founder of Charter 97, was jailed for five years for organising mass protests during the December 2010 presidential election.
Ms Radzina, who works in exile in neighbouring Lithuania, said the hackers got into the website by using a password, probably by sending malware to an editor's computer.
In December 2010 the authorities cracked down on protests against alleged vote-rigging in the presidential election.
More than 600 people were detained, including seven of the election candidates.
International monitors said the contest, in which Mr Lukashenko officially won 80% of the vote, was deeply flawed.
The UK's Europe Minister David Lidington says the UK is pursuing "all means possible to keep up the pressure for the release and rehabilitation of prisoners and for the promotion of democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Belarus".
Lawyers in Belarus say it is too early to tell what impact the new law will have, according to Euroradio.fm, an independent Belarusian news and music website.
A Belarusian advertising agency, RG Media, which does business with foreign websites, also said the new law "does not look very clear". "We have no idea how it will affect us," the company told Euroradio.
The Belarus interior ministry told Euroradio that any policeman would have the power to enforce the new law.


Opinions sought after on this one.

[Firebrand]

Of course. Can't have people accessing sites like RevLeft. They might get ideas (shock horror)

[Red Noob]

Gotta' love authority.


Anyone found accessing "extremist" or "pornographic" websites will also be fined, the law says.

Riots and protests are ensued.

[Firebrand]

Gotta' love authority.



Riots and protests are ensued.

Ah but will it be due to anger at political freedoms being removed. Or will it just be a violent release of sexual frustration from lack of porn. :laugh:

[Os Cangaceiros]

Fines for breaking the law range as high as 1m Belarus rubles (£77; $120).

Quite an exchange rate.

[danyboy27]

a law is only valid if you can apply it in the real world. China got a freaking firewall and yet people still find extremely inventive way to bypass it.

The provincial governement here passed a law a fews years ago prohibiting anyone to drive and using a cellphone at the same time. Guess what? Nobody give a shit, not even the cops. They dont have the ressources or time to fuck around and look in everyone phone. Sometime they give a ticket or two, but its mostly to fill their quotas, they would have given those to random people anyway.

[Robespierre Richard]

a law is only valid if you can apply it in the real world. China got a freaking firewall and yet people still find extremely inventive way to bypass it.

The provincial governement here passed a law a fews years ago prohibiting anyone to drive and using a cellphone at the same time. Guess what? Nobody give a shit, not even the cops. They dont have the ressources or time to fuck around and look in everyone phone. Sometime they give a ticket or two, but its mostly to fill their quotas, they would have given those to random people anyway.

Actually, today in China the filter only remains for political reasons, that is to justify the filter and that the government is doing something. Otherwise no one really cares and bypassing it is easy. I remember a few months ago I had a wordpress blog which a friend who was visiting China found out about through a proxied Facebook, and when he visited the blog it turned out that Wordpress.com wasn't blocked at all.


Quite an exchange rate.

To be fair, that is more Shevchenko's legacy of price liberalization. Russia got rid of the zeroes at the end when 1 million rubles meant $200, though a year after that the government defaulted on its debt and the currency lost 5/6 of its value, meaning that 1 million old rubles would be about $33.

It was even worse in Ukraine where money was flying around on the street like garbage. I remember when my family and I were visiting Crimea, we found a 1 million karbovanets note on the beach, which was barely enough for a taxi ride to town. The only difference is, Belarus never had a currency reform where they cut the zeroes off because until about 2009 everyone thought that they would enter a currency union with Russia.

[danyboy27]

Actually, today in China the filter only remains for political reasons, that is to justify the filter and that the government is doing something. Otherwise no one really cares and bypassing it is easy. I remember a few months ago I had a wordpress blog which a friend who was visiting China found out about through a proxied Facebook, and when he visited the blog it turned out that Wordpress.com wasn't blocked at all.

I know, and the same could be said for a lot of laws ''applied'' worldwide.
Liquor store are not supposed to sell cigarette and booze to minors but its common practice anyway. There is just so much liquor stores, to be really able to apply this law you would need a shitload of cops or at least a polulation of concerned citizens.

Take jaywalking for exemple, its basically illegal here and yet the cops dont give a fuck, the only time they arrest a jaywalker is to meet their penality quotas to be able to have a better budget next year.