website freedom

[Resistor]

I'm in the states, but I want to start a website outside of the legal reach of the US government. I don't plan on doing anything illegal with it by any means, I just like the idea of being outside the legal reach of the fascist state I live in. I know .com, .org, .net are out, as they can be seized via DNS redirection at any time, but I don't know where I should look, I also don't know how realistic it is to try to register a domain in another country while being in the states.

I'm open to general advice and knowledge on the subject, but I also have a few questions.

What countries have the freest laws regarding the internet? Why hasn't wikileaks.org been seized? Obviously the US considers them to be an enemy. Is a non TLD likely to remain buried deep in search engine results no matter what? Is it pointless to even try to start a website in another country, while remaining in the states?

Thanks.

[Kulverstukas]

I can only recommend from my perspective, and that is to host in Lithuania, as well as to buy an .lt domain. As far as I'm concerned, we are pretty free in the internet, however they are trying to censor stuff here, however without tangible results.
Another thing would be to host somewhere in third-world countries?

[sakthibruce]

well i am not a clever to help you but i believe I can answer why wikileaks not down even its against us.
Well wikileaks is hosted in netherland the hosting company is "leaseweb ". here their official website http://www.leaseweb.com/en they give dedicated server for 29euros(I guss ).

Here is my source

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/wikileaks.org
http://whois.domaintools.com/95.211.113.131

[Inquisitor Sasha]

My org has a .lt domain.  We got it as a virtual TLD, like .org.uk or something like that.  It's good to see that there's not many regulations on it.  It was registered through Gandi.  The downside with them if you're looking for privacy is that someone's name has to appear in WHOIS because all contacts have to be Gandi accounts, which must be actual people.  You can't just write "Domain Administrator" the way that you can with other registrars.  The upside is that a lot of European TLDs have default privacy on registration.  On our .ru domain for example, all the contact information is hidden.


I don't know completely how this works, but I think the US has some influence on all TLDs.  It's the only country that doesn't have a CCTLD in front of .gov.  The us .gov is just .gov, not .gov.us.  For practical or ethical reasons, they might not interfere with the domains given to other countries.  But I think technically if they really wanted, they could seize any domain they want.


I'm not sure what you mean by "non TLD."  All domains have a TLD, which is the top level domain.  You can't avoid having a TLD unless you only use the IP address of the server.  In such an event you wouldn't be able to have multiple web hostnames.

[proxx]

Many european privacy concerns are just as fucked up as any US host for that matter.
Its funny how they advertise with that crap while in fact you get it from behind the second you turn around.
When it comes to tracking users, internet traffic etc the EU is just as bad.
Privacy is dead, so is legal defense, they call you a terrorist , a pirate, a criminal or whatever shit they come up with these days and again they penertrate you from behind, justifying the rape of any law that happens to be there, guess laws only apply to those not in favour.
This world is full of scammers and thiefs, most of them wear suits and hide behind money or the same laws they happened to make.
With they Im reffering to those in control , which in most countries at the end of the day is just a hand full.
I even dare to go as far as saying that the whole democracy we hold so dear is 90% lie.
Having people believe they are free is the ultimate form of slavery, money plays a big role in this game, in fact enforcement is not even required,
we are happily signing  loan papers.


Best bet would be some country where the internet is not  'invented' yet.
One advantage this brings is that when the legal system has to cross borders things turn ugly and costs a shit load of money.
As long you are not a hot target most wont bother, effectively playing the game according to the rules and using it in ones favour.
I know im sounding kinda .. well what shall we call it .. negative, I know.
The more I learn the more I realize this is the cold hard truth we have to face.
My words could have been chosen better or perhaps more gentle but Im kinda drunk and I guess Im just cutting the pretty.

(EZ members are thinking, 'OMG here goes proxx again , *reading the first 2 lines* ...I have better things to do')

[lucid]

(EZ members are thinking, 'OMG here goes proxx again , *reading the first 2 lines* ...I have better things to do')

C'mon proxx you should know by now that you and I share pretty much identical beliefs..

[Resistor]

Thanks all for the replies. It does seem pretty bleak. As mentioned, even outside of the U.S. other governments go after domain names too. It's so unfortunate to me that so many governments want to control the internet. I think they realize that it's the last place on earth where true freedom is possible, and they fear the empowerment it gives individuals. I think you're right Kulver, about the only thing you can do is find a really obscure CCTLD. This is an interesting article.

The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular sites for file sharing, once again thwarted authorities trying to shut it down.

After briefly disappearing because its Caribbean domain name, thepiratebay.sx, was seized by authorities, the site popped back into action on thepiratebay.ac, according to The Verge and originally reported by Torrent Freak.

The ".ac" is the country code, top-level domain of an isolated volcanic island almost 1,000 miles from the coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, called Ascension Island.

This is the fourth domain that The Pirate Bay has had to switch to in 2013 to avoid being shut down for violating copyright.

And the game of cat and mouse isn't over yet.

Sources from The Pirate Bay told Torrent Freak that because Ascension Island has links to the UK, the site won't be safe for long. It plans to use thepiratebay.ac only temporarily before switching to the Peruvian ".pe". And, if that doesn't last, the infamous torrent site assured Torrent Freak that it has dozens of domain names on reserve.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pirate-bay-new-domain-2013-12

[Resistor]

Regarding wikileaks, here's a theory, and I wonder what likelihood you guys ascribe to it.

Perhaps the U.S. government realizes it's impossible to eradicate wikileaks, as it is heavily mirrored, and maybe they think wikileaks might release something very damning, like names of CIA operatives or something like that.

I think there's a decent chance this is the case. Maybe a 25% chance. Over? Under?