Comment by masklinn | Hacker News Reader

Comment by masklinn | Hacker News Reader

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From my reading, the title seems to be a mis-representation:

* Scratch that, the text notes a misdemeanor, is there no way to strike text on HN? ~~The offense is entirely civil, not criminal.~~

* Belarusians registered as entrepreneurs (individuals or companies) must provide their service to belarusians from a belarusian domain.

* Owners of internet cafés or other places providing internet access must restrict their access to belarusian domains or identify, record and report any access to a non-belarusian domain to the authorities.

* The law includes a provision for government-ordered blocking of banned websites by ISPs.

The note linked does not seem to specify any offense by citizens not registered as entrepreneurs and not business owners, although the second paragraph may hint at information missing from this note:

> The newly published Law imposes restrictions on visiting and/or using foreign websites by Belarusian citizens and residents. Under this new Law, the violation of these rules is recognized as a misdemeanor and is punished by fines of varied amounts, up to the equivalent of US$125. (Id.)

(immediately following this paragraph is the section on entrepreneurs in point 1)

As I can not read Belarusian, I can not assert the correctness of the english note linked or which informations are missing, I'm interested in corrections or more complete informations from native speakers.

edit: I seem to have missed a section of the second paragraph which, while it does not make the title any more correct, makes the law even more worrying: foreign internet use would not be a civil offense for belarusian citizens but being a foreign service used by belarusians in business contexts would be:

> It appears that business requests from Belarus cannot be served over the Internet if the service provider is using online services located outside of the country.

A misdemeanor is a criminal offense, even if it does not involve jail time.

The meaningfulness of that distinction assumes the rule of law.

To the second point: Not only domain, but all the hardware should be situated in Belaus.

Is that part of the original law which was not included in the translated note? Because the note linked here does not — as far as I can tell — make any mention of hardware.

Субъектам хозяйствования, осуществляющим деятельность по реализации товаров, выполнению работ, оказанию услуг на территории Республики Беларусь с использованием информационных сетей, систем и ресурсов, имеющих подключение к сети Интернет, следует обратить внимание: если эти сети, системы или ресурсы не размещены на территории Беларуси и (или) не зарегистрированы в установленном порядке, к субъектам может быть применено административное взыскание в виде штрафа от 10 до 30 базовых величин.

сети, системы или ресурсы mean networks, systems, or [hardware] resources.

It reads that networks, systems, or resources must be located in Belarus.

According to Google translate your quotation says:

Business entities engaged in activities on the sale of goods, works and services in the Republic of Belarus with the use of information networks, systems and resources with an Internet connection, you should pay attention: if these networks, systems or resources are not available on the territory of Belarus and (or) not registered in the prescribed manner to the subjects can be applied to an administrative penalty of a fine from 10 to 30 base units.

Google translate is wrong in one part. Rather than "... are not available on the territory of Belarus", "... если эти сети, системы или ресурсы не размещены на территории Беларуси" translates to "If these networks, systems or resources are not located on the territory of Belarus".

"Located" being the vital difference here.

Thank you.

I scrolled through the original text, I think that note is correct, citizens using internet in their home aren't restricted [yet].

> is punished by fines of varied amounts, up to the equivalent of US$125. (Id.)

Fines suggest a criminal, not civil, offences. Damages would suggest a civil offence.

This terminological difference is irrelevant when talking about country which doesn't use English language and has its own history of law systems.

Call those damages if you like.

seems like someone's lobbyist got what he was paid for. Something like this makes no real sense, unless you are an internet service provider(domain, hosting etc)

You're not right. There are no lobbyists in Belarus, but there is a president that rules for about 20 years already, doesn't want to leave the president place and likes restricting free people.

How about corruption or collusion, then?

Uhm, he's a dictator. So yes, by definition - this is just controlling the media.

Well, he could be a corrupt dictator or a honest one; which does not mean nice, just that he tries to treat his subjects fairly according to some rule or ideology. Lobbying exists in dictatorships too I just guess it is generally not as frequent as in western democracies.

I only add that "Owners of internet cafés or other places providing internet access must restrict their access to belarusian domains" is a complete lye. Cafes are only recording IDs of users, and that's it. So, noone would be able to conduct crime onlime from public internet. This article is yet another piece of stupid propaganda we already used to from the 'democratic' countries.

OK, I see you're from Belarus too, like me. Yeah cafes are recording only ID but they will get banned if they do not restrict access to the internet.

> Административное взыскание в виде штрафа (в размере от 5 до 15 базовых величин) может налагаться на должностных лиц пунктов коллективного пользования интернет-услугами (компьютерные клубы, интернет-кафе, домашние сети и иные места, в которых обеспечивается коллективный доступ пользователей интернет-услуг к сети Интернет) при нарушении законодательных актов об идентификации абонентских устройств и пользователей, по учету и хранению сведений о них, а также об оказанных интернет-услугах.

BTW, as of your 'propaganda'. Do you think our gov't has ever been fair at least for 1 second? They violate their own laws, they violate our rights, c'mon.

Considering your feelings and how you feel about uttering them online, have you considered getting the fuck out of there?

Get to European soil and ask for asylum. It is not much, but at least it is better than Belarus.

Yeah, I wanna get out of there as soon as possible. To US, Canada, Australia, Germany, or even Poland. The heck is I'm only 15 and can't move myself; my parents appear to be OK in here.

Anyway I will not spend even a day here after I'm 18. I gonna work for some cool startup also.

I'm from Belarus myself, moved to United States when I was 13 with my family.

Be careful though, to immigrate to the United States on an H1 (work visa), you need a university degree. I'd suggest either trying to immigrate to Europe (any EU country) and getting a degree there, getting a degree in Belarus, or perhaps going to the United States as a foreign student.

[Edit: s/college/university/ -- college is an American term. My fifth grade English teacher in Belarus must be angry at me for forgetting Queen's English that I was taught :-)]

My grandfather left what's now Belarus with his mother and several siblings (their father and oldest brother had left earlier) in 1914 and came to the United States. Every time I hear anything about Belarus I'm thankful that they did this. Good luck getting out, and welcome to the US if that ends up being your destination!

Oh, youth!

You're going to have a fairly hard time getting asylum unless you can show political persecution of yourself (unfortunately simple overall tyranny does not count).

Nitpicking: technically Belarussia is as much European soil, as Germany.

Geographically, yes, politically it is very, very far from the rest of Europe.

He meant the Eurozone, I think, and it is definitely outside the Eurozone.

Or he meant European Union, which is not the same thing as Eurozone, nor Europe. Anyway - this is nitpicking.

You quote in Russia have nothing to do with 'restricting access' to the Internet. I don't care about gov's propaganda, because I am free. I don't own a TV, I don't read newspapers, so they can't reach me.

Umm, pretending it's not there doesn't make it go away. That doesn't work in "democratic countries" either.

The english note says something quite different, as to the part you wrote it appends that businesses can alternatively identify, record and report all access to non-belarusian domains.

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