[governance] It is now illegal to access any foreign website in the Republic of Belarus

[Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza]

More info on the situation in Belarus:
http://www.itlaw.by/eng/belarus/24.php

(...)

"First of all it should be mentioned that there are no legal obstacles
for any Belarusian resident to operate a website under international
top-level domain names (.com, .net, etc.) or national domain names of
other states (.ru, .ch, it. etc.), as well as non-residents are free
to operate the website registered in the national domain zone “.by”.

The main reason for confusion is Clause 2 of the Edict, obliging
websites to host its content on servers in Belarus, as the wording of
the Clause 2 is very ambiguous:

“Activity on selling goods, performing works or rendering services on
the territory of the Republic of Belarus with use of information
networks, systems and resources connected to Internet shall be
conducted by legal entities, their branches and representative
offices, established in accordance with the legislation of the
Republic of Belarus, located in the Republic of Belarus … with use of
information networks, systems and resources located (hosted) in the
Republic of Belarus and duly registered”.

In other words it enacts the requirement for legal entities and
entrepreneurs to host websites, which conduct activity on selling of
goods, rendering of services, performing works, within the territory
of the Republic of Belarus.

In the situation of absence of any official clarification or court
precedent, different variants of interpretation of Clause 2 have
appeared. However, basing on the comments of the regulator and opinion
of Belarusian leading law firms, the common interpretation has been
worked out: the hosting requirement is applicable only to Belarusian
legal entities and individual entrepreneurs. This interpretation is
indirectly proved by the wording of the Article 22.16 of the recently
enacted Law Amending the Administrative Offences Code.

It should be noted that sanctions for violation of the Edict will
apply only to legal entities and entrepreneurs, but not to Internet
users trying to access websites violating the Edict."



2012/1/2 Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu>:
> Cyber-nationalism lives.
>
>
>
> The original information, which is much more accurate, came from the Library
> of Congress
>
> http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp3_l205402929_text
>
>
>
>
>
> From: governance at lists.cpsr.org [mailto:governance at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf
> Of Tracy F. Hackshaw @ Google
> Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 2:56 PM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: [governance] It is now illegal to access any foreign website in the
> Republic of Belarus
>
>
>
> http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/01/02/it-is-now-illegal-to-access-any-foreign-website-in-the-republic-of-belarus/
>
> Rgds,
>
> Tracy
>
>
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-- 
Centro de Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS/FGV)
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