[governance] DNS filtration activated for gambling websites in Bulgaria

[Daniel Kalchev]

On 20.06.13 13:11, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
> Daniel Kalchev [20/06/13 13:04 +0300]:
>> This is a bit extreme statement.
>>
>> There are few hundred ISPs operating in Bulgaria and certainly many 
>> of the bigger ISPs have not received such letter and thus not even 
>> aware of the "order".
>
> There are of course other ways, such as nullrouting IP addresses / CIDRs
As it seems, some ISPs have implemented it this way.

Haven't seen the order outside of that web site and can't comment on 
what it asks to be implemented. The mere fact I have not seen it yet 
comes to say most of the ISPs in Bulgarian haven't too.

I am however not going to dive into details as to not give more ideas of 
what can be done -- which would complicate everyone's life.

> The vast majority of users actually do use their ISP resolvers and not
> google DNS or a dnscache / pdns recursor on a linux box in their 
> closet so
> even if the move was suggested by an overpaid consultant with political
> connections, it will be effective for quite a few people.

Internet users in Bulgaria are quite aware of these things. As mentioned 
already --- we already had few such cases, that also involved IP 
filtering to the sites by close-to-ther-powers ISPs. Those users that 
cared, actually made the effort to do what it takes and these "measures" 
were effective only for few days, at best.

It is also interesting to note that many of the ISPs that do in fact 
implement filtering, do educate their customers how to circumvent it, 
perhaps in fear of not losing them.

An unfortunate side effect of this event will be that more users will 
switch to alternative DNS resolvers and VPN services. Well, fortunate 
for the likes of Google, who will get more traffic to feed the Algorithm.

> In the case of online gambling, and in some other cases I would 
> hesitate to
> draw a slippery slope relationship between filtering those and filtering
> sites that affect free speech.

Precisely.

> If there is a national law that prohibits or strictly regulates gambling,
> and if a sizeable section of the gamblers in the country then start using
> offshore (and online) casinos based out of costa rica, malta etc 
> locations
> where they've moved for tax reasons, a more permissive legal regime etc..
> this reaction is kind of expected.

The law is very vague. In particular, the law explicitly says that it is 
*legal* to offer gambling services online in Bulgaria if you are based 
in the EU. It seems that most of the sites/operators in the EU are in 
fact based in the EU. Therefore, they are not breaching the Bulgarian 
law....

Please note, I am in no way advocating unlawful gambling, not paying of 
taxes etc.
However, I am absolutely and strongly opposed to anything that impairs 
Internet's neutrality, in particular imposing on Internet operators of 
any kind to do the job of police, investigation and law enforcement. The 
Internet is like the land on which we walk -- you don't ask the land to 
fall under the criminal's feet, right?

Also, the recent week is full of events and protests in Bulgaria and 
having this "order" in the background is just an attempt to sneak in 
some inappropriate regulation, which will then be considered "precedent" 
and then put in regular use. I can only see this situation add more oil 
to the fuel of protests, as information spreads wider.

Daniel

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