AW: Italy orders ISPs to block sites

Tue Mar 7 08:56:40 UTC 2006

--On March 7, 2006 9:13:21 AM +0100 tom <tier1 at ncinet.de> wrote:

>
> Hi Folks across the ocean..
>
> I understand, that from an American point of view this kind of restriction
> looks strange and is against your act of freedom, however here in Europe
> gambling is a state controlled business that supports the state economy
> and in most European countries gambling outside state controlled casinos
> is simply illegal and forbidden by law.

Even in the US, this is true.  Gambling in California is illegal (except
indian casions, long story), because Nevada has a powerful lobby in 
California.

> So I doubt, that the European Court would really rule agaist this....
> Each country has specific laws, that othewr nations do not not understand
> and we all should accept that.

I wouldn't expect the court to rule against it, but, I do suspect that
motivated Italians will trivially work around it.

> Imagine, if kids in the US would be able to order Cannabis from
> Online-shops in the Netherlands (as it is leaglized there)through mail
> order? Would you or your legislation agree to that?
>
Nope, but, the hard part there is the importation of the Cannabis.  Frankly,
kids here CAN order it from the online shops.  The hard part is getting the
delivery to arrive without getting prosecuted.

However, for gambling, it's a bit more complicated.  Generally, the movement
of money in and out of most countries is not restricted, and, what the money
does while it is in the other countries is even harder to control unless
the two countries in question have treaties about such things.  As such, 
since
gambling involves no physical product other than money, and, technically, 
the
Italians are moving the money out of Italy, gambling on foreign soil, then
moving their winnings back into Italy (much like they flew, for example, to
Monaco, gambled in the Casinos there, then flew home with their winnings),
it's quite a bit harder to enforce.

I don't question the validity of the law.  That's between the Italians and
their government.  I question the practicality of enforcing the law because
the way the internet and the international economies work, it is virtually
impossible to enforce this short of something like the great firewall
of China (which still allows SSH through for the most part, so...).

Owen

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