Ignoring the various free speech issues and focusing on the headline: remember, "substantial hardship" is a technical term. It means "a demonstrated economic,

Ignoring the various free speech issues and focusing on the headline: remember, "substantial hardship" is a technical term. It means "a demonstrated economic, technological, legal, or other type of hardship to the person requesting the variance or waiver." [0] Of particular note, it only seems to come up in the case of requesting a waiver or other sort of legal exception. An example usage might be a homeless person getting a waiver for a court filing fee, because coming up with the money would be a hurdle he probably couldn't clear. In this particular case, the company in question is requesting the expedited return of a seized domain, while legal proceedings are still going on. In order to secure such a ruling, they would need to show that not having the domain for the duration of the trial would actually be crippling, not merely inconvenient. (Having not been in the courtroom, I don't know how well they argued this point, but apparently the judge didn't buy it.) [0] http://www.kleinfeldlaw.com/Publications/Articles/Variances%20from%20Permitting%20StandardsUnreasonable%20Unfair%20and%20Unintended%20Results.aspx http://www.kleinfeldlaw.com/Publications/Articles/Variances%... and in other places; the usage seems to be fairly consistent