5 ms·

I’m actually surprised what happened to the SK (Slovakian) TLD mentioned in that answer - it seems to have been taken over by fraud, then the fraudulent new own

I’m actually surprised what happened to the SK (Slovakian) TLD mentioned in that answer - it seems to have been taken over by fraud, then the fraudulent new owner of the TLD sold out to some company abroad and they’re now trying to sell out again, and apparently a contract prevents the state from doing anything? How is that possible? Why can’t the government just ask ICANN to delegate the TLD to a legitimate entity and tell the greedy fraudulent one to fuck right off?

pmlnr 8y ago
Eastern Europe - if you know someone, or you're someone's someone, these things regularly happen.
- zaarn 8y ago
  I mean it's not inherently bad the entire way. Having a good friend in Poland means I get cheap brakes for my car.
  - pc86 8y ago
    "Grift is fine as long as it benefits me."
    - goldenkey 8y ago
      "Factory farming is fine - as long as my veal is delectable"
    - zaarn 8y ago
      My friend benefits too or is this because he's east european?
  - deedree 8y ago
    They were so cheap you couldn't brake on the moral high road?
    - zaarn 8y ago
      Is it now immoral to be friends with people from poland? Has this site sunk so low?
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  It's exactly the same in the west. The difference is that it's generally more discreet and requirements for the directness with which one must "know someone" are more strict and "knowing someone" and "favors" are much harder to apply across departments/organizations. We're not talking Chicago or rural counties in the deep south here, this is how things work in your run of the mill state and local government.
  - civilitty 8y ago
    I agree that there is more indirection involved but I disagree about the discreetness: it's not that corruption in the US is more discreet, it's just far more transparent and normalized within the culture. There is red tape and a bunch of rules to follow so it gives everyone involved a false sense of fairness. You don't give someone a bribe, you donate to their political campaign or charity - which then hires their family to be on the board or as some consultant with a plausibly deniable role. In return, you get Requests For Proposals and contracts with requirements disqualifying everyone except the company owned by one guy who "donated." Even in cases where people are breaking the law, there's simply no money for enforcement or even any established mechanisms for doing so (often on purpose), especially as the changing media landscape erodes local journalism. From personal experience: I don't bribe policemen, I donate to the police union or contribute money towards some officer's or family member's health or college fund. I don't bribe school administration, I go to a few Booster Club events a year and throw money at whatever their latest stupid fund is. I don't bribe teachers, I show up on the first day of school with enough science lab kits and other school supplies for a whole class. I don't bribe my doctors, I contribute money to the nonprofit clinics they are partnered with, which then pays part of the doctor's annual salary directly so that they can focus more on the clinic. There is far more indirection and the "return on investment" is certainly far less than what I saw when living in Russia, for example, but that's just lipstick on a pig because at the end of the day, it works. When my kid and his friends were caught with drugs (not cannabis), I got to the station less than 5 minutes after they did and was able to get them out by the next day without even seeing a judge (the evidence was "misplaced" on the way to lockup so the prosecutor felt it wasn't worth his time). When he got into a fight with a close friend, I managed to get both of them off with an in-school suspension instead of an expulsion that would go on their permanent records. Never once did I bring up the donations or threaten to cut them off - my rhetoric in each situation basically boiled down to "boys will be boys but I'll make sure they know what it means to be punished" but the deference I received was far more than the average person would, even when getting special treatment for someone else's kid.
zokier 8y ago
See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14697138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14697138
smasty 8y ago
Being from Slovakia, I guess people in our current government don't really care. The company SK-NIC that was running the TLD has ties with people in the government. It was recently sold to CentralNic, based in England.

pmlnr 8y ago

Eastern Europe - if you know someone, or you're someone's someone, these things regularly happen.

zaarn 8y ago
I mean it's not inherently bad the entire way. Having a good friend in Poland means I get cheap brakes for my car.
- pc86 8y ago
  "Grift is fine as long as it benefits me."
  - goldenkey 8y ago
    "Factory farming is fine - as long as my veal is delectable"
  - zaarn 8y ago
    My friend benefits too or is this because he's east european?
- deedree 8y ago
  They were so cheap you couldn't brake on the moral high road?
  - zaarn 8y ago
    Is it now immoral to be friends with people from poland? Has this site sunk so low?
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
It's exactly the same in the west. The difference is that it's generally more discreet and requirements for the directness with which one must "know someone" are more strict and "knowing someone" and "favors" are much harder to apply across departments/organizations. We're not talking Chicago or rural counties in the deep south here, this is how things work in your run of the mill state and local government.
- civilitty 8y ago
  I agree that there is more indirection involved but I disagree about the discreetness: it's not that corruption in the US is more discreet, it's just far more transparent and normalized within the culture. There is red tape and a bunch of rules to follow so it gives everyone involved a false sense of fairness. You don't give someone a bribe, you donate to their political campaign or charity - which then hires their family to be on the board or as some consultant with a plausibly deniable role. In return, you get Requests For Proposals and contracts with requirements disqualifying everyone except the company owned by one guy who "donated." Even in cases where people are breaking the law, there's simply no money for enforcement or even any established mechanisms for doing so (often on purpose), especially as the changing media landscape erodes local journalism. From personal experience: I don't bribe policemen, I donate to the police union or contribute money towards some officer's or family member's health or college fund. I don't bribe school administration, I go to a few Booster Club events a year and throw money at whatever their latest stupid fund is. I don't bribe teachers, I show up on the first day of school with enough science lab kits and other school supplies for a whole class. I don't bribe my doctors, I contribute money to the nonprofit clinics they are partnered with, which then pays part of the doctor's annual salary directly so that they can focus more on the clinic. There is far more indirection and the "return on investment" is certainly far less than what I saw when living in Russia, for example, but that's just lipstick on a pig because at the end of the day, it works. When my kid and his friends were caught with drugs (not cannabis), I got to the station less than 5 minutes after they did and was able to get them out by the next day without even seeing a judge (the evidence was "misplaced" on the way to lockup so the prosecutor felt it wasn't worth his time). When he got into a fight with a close friend, I managed to get both of them off with an in-school suspension instead of an expulsion that would go on their permanent records. Never once did I bring up the donations or threaten to cut them off - my rhetoric in each situation basically boiled down to "boys will be boys but I'll make sure they know what it means to be punished" but the deference I received was far more than the average person would, even when getting special treatment for someone else's kid.

zokier 8y ago

See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14697138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14697138

smasty 8y ago

Being from Slovakia, I guess people in our current government don't really care. The company SK-NIC that was running the TLD has ties with people in the government. It was recently sold to CentralNic, based in England.