Vote-auction falls victim to ILLEGAL DNS-SHUTDOWN [PRESS RELEASE]

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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 Vote-auction falls victim to ILLEGAL DNS-SHUTDOWN

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 Vienna/Berlin, November 2nd, 2000, 7 am CET

 Below you find the latest press release by [V]ote-auction: 
 http://62.116.31.68
 http://www.voteauction.at
 http://www.voteauction.de

 [formerly Vote-auction.com and Voteauction.com]. 

 You can also find this press release at 
 http://62.116.31.68/pr.htm

 For any further information feel free to contact
 pr@[62.116.31.68] or in urgent cases call our
 ubermorgen.com hotlines:
 
 berlin +49-175-2066954
 vienna +43 676 9300061

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 [V] Vote-auction falls victim to ILLEGAL DNS-SHUTDOWN

 [V]ote-auction, the only platform worldwide allowing
 end-consumers to take part in the U.S. election
 industry [formerly called “soft money“], falls again
 victim to a repressive campaign against free speech. 
 
 Yesterday, 1st of November 2000, the domain Vote-auction.com
 got illegally shut down by InterNIC. InterNIC is the
 central institution located in the U.S. where all domain
 name service records for the .com/.net/.org are stored.
 We, and neither our providers have received any notification   
 about this action at all, nor have we been informed of any  
 legal documents which would allow for such a step.
 Up to this moment, InterNIC is declining comment on the 
 issue.

 [V] Why was the domain shut down in this way?

 Our first domain, voteauction.com, was registered with
 a dns-registry located in the U.S. Our “late“ domain,
 vote-auction.com, however, was registered via a company  
 located in Germany, i.e. outside of U.S. jurisdiction.
 This is why, appearantly, some-one in the U.S., probably
 parties from the Chicago law suit where vote-auction.com
 is named as a defendant, decided to just forget about legal
 proceedings, and went directly to InterNIC, ignoring inter-
 national law.

 [V] What will happen to [V]ote-auction now?

 Our lawyers are currently investigating, as you might    
 imagine. Furthermore, we have discussed the issue
 with newly-elect ICANN board director Andy Mueller-Maguhn,
 who commented the issue with “I guess, we will have to
 do something about this“. A colleague of his called it
 “it is absolutely clear that this is plain outrageous“.
 
 On a more practical level, we are reachable via our
 IP – our new url is: http://62.116.31.68

 Using the IP address will finally give us full protection
 against any further actions against our site, as IP
 addresses are not dependant on domain name services.

 Luckily, this DNS-SHUTDOWN was not intelligentely timed. 
 Due to our “opponents'“ lazy tactics, Vote-auction.com will 
 now definitely be online and reachable to the public on 
 Election Day via several domains and under the IP-Address 
 controlled by a european institution: ripe.net. 

 On a funny note, one could say that now they either have
 to shut down the whole Internet or arrest the whole US- 
 population, OR, which is more likely, our site will stay
 functional and online.

 [V] [V]ote-auction is BACK UNDER

 Thanks to the incredible work of our dear provider
 SILVER SERVER [www.sil.at], we were able to get back online 
 fast and are now reachable at: http://62.116.31.68
 This is the safest address currently available.

 Vote-auction can also be reached under:  
 http://voteauction.enemy.org

 Vote-auction has issued a free speech support campaign in 
 order to gather hundreds of vote-auction and voteauction 
 domains or install sub-domains all pointing to:
 http://62.116.31.68

 From November, 2nd, the following domains shall be active:
 http://www.voteauction.at [Austrian domain]
 http://www.voteauction.de [Germany, thx to think-factory.de]
 http://www.voteauction.cu [Cuban domain]
 http://www.voteauction.ru [Russian domain]
 http://www.vote-auction.net
 http://www.vote-auction.org

 [V] Vote-auction.com ADDS NEW FEATURES

 Now to some really good news!

 Vote-auction, still the "Leader of the Election Industry",
 and the first mover in this field, has added various new 
 features:

 [] Updated figures, automated processes
 Our new software has allowed us to verify the numbers
 which have been in the system so far. We have cleared
 out all double and fake entries and can now provide
 you with live, real-time rendered data:
 http://62.116.31.68/check.php3 

 *current no. of sellers: 56.789

 [] International polls
 In order to showcase the US-presidential election even
 better, Vote-auction has released several polls for
 national and international audiences.
 Vote-auction intends to involve a worldwide audience by 
 polling their preferences on “Gore-Bush-Nader“, a community 
 poll will raise the Question whether Vote-auction.com
 should be considered “legal or Illegal“, and the most 
 important question of all – “Would you rather go voting
 if you received money for it?“. Find the polls at:
 http://62.116.31.68/index00.htm

 [] 1-CLICK-BIDDING function
 In order to use our bidding section we have implemented
 a 1-click-bidding function with user-verification. This
 will help ensuring the authenticity of the bidders and will
 secure the bidders‘ offer. Find the bid-check section:
 http://62.116.31.68/check.php3

 [] ALL NEW MESSAGE-BOARD, heavily crowded
 Created to stimulate public reaction from the U.S., but
 also the international audiences, you will now find our 
 message board crowded and full with interesting and 
 controversial discussions:
 http://62.116.31.68/forum/

 [] Extended PRESS-ARCHIVE, over 200 internat. news-segments
 Due to the massive response in the media, we have updated
 our press-section providing you with broad information on 
 how Vote-auction is featured and discussed in the press.
 Well over 200 e-press-clippings have been discovered by
 our PR-department:
 http://62.116.31.68/news.htm

 [V] Final note

 We want to end this press release with a quote from
 chief counsel to the California secretary of state,
 Bill Jones, who seems to have a somewhat “personal“ view
 on free speech:

 “whether this is a parody [...] that this man is
  running, it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever
  in California. [...] because you are talking about
  the corruption of the voting process.“
 
 Source: CNN, “Burden of Proof“, Oct 24 2000
 http://www.cnn.com/video/burden/2000/10/24/show.rm80.ram

 Appearantely, there are other individuals and/or
 authorities, who share his viewpoint. We have just
 received notice of further lawsuits filed in the states
 of Wisconsin and Missouri by their respective Attorney 
 Generals. 

 For the Vote-auction team:
 
 lizvlx
 [V]ote-auction PR 

 PLEASE NOTE: If you want to access Vote-auction via
 web or mail, please be sure to use the correct domain:

     pr@[62.116.31.68]
     http://62.116.31.68
     http://www.voteauction.at

 We will not be able to receive messages sent to any of 
 the old addresses. Thank you.

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