LATEST PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Berlin/Vienna, November 02, 2000, 7 am CET
Vote-auction falls victim to ILLEGAL DNS-SHUTDOWN
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
[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 international 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 http://62.116.31.68
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.
press and media contact: | pr@[62.116.31.68]