5 ms·

Large Belarusian IT portal losing its .by domain over new law

31 points by hippich 12y ago

avodonosov 12y ago
Isn't that typical for Belarus :)
- andrzejsz 12y ago
  Or even for many postcommunist countries
gesman 12y ago
He smelled the problem long before it started but failed to implement a simple remedy: Creating 301 redirect to portal copy hosted in stable jurisdiction.
- avodonosov 12y ago
  301 redirect from where? Their domain name is just deleted
  - gesman 12y ago
    Before it was deleted but after first sign of trouble coming from bat'ka. That didn't happen overnight.
- anonymfus 12y ago
  IIRC it's illegal to provide paid services to Belarusians from sites hosted or registered in other jurisdictions.
  - avodonosov 12y ago
    Right, according to Указ №60 (http://ukaz60.net/node/7 http://ukaz60.net/node/7). And domain name ought to be .BY . On the other hand the penalty currently is about $300. But as onliner.by is an aggregator/catalog for many web stores, every of them may be a subject for that penalty, if they work through onliner.RU . And I am sure the government can quickly increase the penalty cost.
colinbartlett 12y ago
Another reminder that you don't own domain names, you rent them. And the owner can take it back at any time. It's for this reason that solutions such as Namecoin and other decentralized solutions are increasingly intriguing to me.
- avodonosov 12y ago
  +1 for the Namecoin reference. Thanks
guard-of-terra 12y ago
Looks like it's an ecommerce site, not an IT-portal.
- zihotki 12y ago
  It's grown from being an IT into some very IT related. And although they have some sort of a market there they still do a lot of reviews of various gadgets and have very popular forum. And also it's worth mentioning that it is the second top Blr portal.
sam_lowry_ 12y ago
It is indeed not an IT portal, but an ecommerce website. Very similar to Alibaba in its business model. Had a catalogue of every imaginable product and the best ever search over it.
- hippich 12y ago
  This is not just ecommerce site, but news outlet (alot related to latest technology news), classified ads, very large forum with a lot of members actively using it, and catalogue of various products (mostly about electronics). So e-commerce is just some part of it.
  - imissmyjuno 12y ago
    You seem to know what you're talking about. I've read up a few sources in Russian, and all of them say there were breaches of law related to commerce and the company was warned, but none of the articles actually mentions the actual cause. One article (http://euroradio.fm/ru/sayt-onlinerby-isklyuchayut-iz-belorusskoy-domennoy-zony http://euroradio.fm/ru/sayt-onlinerby-isklyuchayut-iz-beloru...) mentions showing prices on the site. Was the site conducting ecommerce illegally, and are you not allowed to open up an ecommerce site without prior registration with the government? I certainly don't see anything about a 'new law' as the HN title suggests.
    - hippich 12y ago
      I don't believe onliner.by company was actually selling any of these products, instead they provided a platform for belarusian companies to show their prices, and make it possible to compare prices between companies. This is very-very old project and I don't believe it had anything illegal going on. My personal suspicions are that it is more political issue, rather than doing something illegal. Site was covering many news events, including showing off 'inefficiencies' of belarus government. I might be wrong tho.
out_of_protocol 12y ago
Actually alibaba-style catalog + gsmarena-arena-style product details catalog + IT News site + forum + other stuff. #2 site in the country
salimmadjd 12y ago
Having a dev a team there in Belarus I spent 4 months of that past 12 there. This seems to be about pricing. Because of the strong economic ties between Russia and Belarus, the sanctions in Russia is also causing a huge devaluation on Belarusian currency. My friends have been telling me of long lines at the banks to convert their money to Dollar. To prevent the rush, starting today, there is a 30% tax on converting your money to Dollar. Essentially a 30% devaluation of their currency. Since many things are imported in Belarus any currency devaluation effects the price of goods, so people rushed to stores to buy anything they can (and now I've been told the shelves are almost empty). But here's another issue, prices seem to be control by the government. For instance, when you go to restaurants all menus that have price on them, have a stamp and signature (think of it like a notarized stamp). This is so restaurants wont be able to increase the price as they wish. From the google translation, it seems to me the online store started increasing their prices to match the devaluated currency and the government didn't like it. Because it contradicts their message on stability of their currency. They might have done the same at a physical store in this case.
- zihotki 12y ago
  Belorussian here. Also there is a law which enforces you to sell 50% of foreign currency you get from selling your goods or services abroad (a few weeks ago it was only 30%). And that 30% fee you can not enlist into your expenses to reduce the taxes. So the importers and many of exporters are completely f*cked up. And today they went even further - the government introduced a law which locks all prices in all shops or the shop will be closed and the owner will have to pay a fine. Crazy times...
throughTheWay 12y ago
Original: http://news.tut.by/it/428870.html http://news.tut.by/it/428870.html (just so that the URL doesn't get masked by translate.google.com)
freemanoid 12y ago
Migrated to http://onliner.ru http://onliner.ru

31 points by hippich 12y ago

avodonosov 12y ago

Isn't that typical for Belarus :)

andrzejsz 12y ago
Or even for many postcommunist countries

gesman 12y ago

He smelled the problem long before it started but failed to implement a simple remedy: Creating 301 redirect to portal copy hosted in stable jurisdiction.

avodonosov 12y ago
301 redirect from where? Their domain name is just deleted
- gesman 12y ago
  Before it was deleted but after first sign of trouble coming from bat'ka. That didn't happen overnight.
anonymfus 12y ago
IIRC it's illegal to provide paid services to Belarusians from sites hosted or registered in other jurisdictions.
- avodonosov 12y ago
  Right, according to Указ №60 (http://ukaz60.net/node/7 http://ukaz60.net/node/7). And domain name ought to be .BY . On the other hand the penalty currently is about $300. But as onliner.by is an aggregator/catalog for many web stores, every of them may be a subject for that penalty, if they work through onliner.RU . And I am sure the government can quickly increase the penalty cost.

colinbartlett 12y ago

Another reminder that you don't own domain names, you rent them. And the owner can take it back at any time. It's for this reason that solutions such as Namecoin and other decentralized solutions are increasingly intriguing to me.

avodonosov 12y ago
+1 for the Namecoin reference. Thanks

guard-of-terra 12y ago

Looks like it's an ecommerce site, not an IT-portal.

zihotki 12y ago
It's grown from being an IT into some very IT related. And although they have some sort of a market there they still do a lot of reviews of various gadgets and have very popular forum. And also it's worth mentioning that it is the second top Blr portal.

sam_lowry_ 12y ago

It is indeed not an IT portal, but an ecommerce website. Very similar to Alibaba in its business model. Had a catalogue of every imaginable product and the best ever search over it.

hippich 12y ago
This is not just ecommerce site, but news outlet (alot related to latest technology news), classified ads, very large forum with a lot of members actively using it, and catalogue of various products (mostly about electronics). So e-commerce is just some part of it.
- imissmyjuno 12y ago
  You seem to know what you're talking about. I've read up a few sources in Russian, and all of them say there were breaches of law related to commerce and the company was warned, but none of the articles actually mentions the actual cause. One article (http://euroradio.fm/ru/sayt-onlinerby-isklyuchayut-iz-belorusskoy-domennoy-zony http://euroradio.fm/ru/sayt-onlinerby-isklyuchayut-iz-beloru...) mentions showing prices on the site. Was the site conducting ecommerce illegally, and are you not allowed to open up an ecommerce site without prior registration with the government? I certainly don't see anything about a 'new law' as the HN title suggests.
  - hippich 12y ago
    I don't believe onliner.by company was actually selling any of these products, instead they provided a platform for belarusian companies to show their prices, and make it possible to compare prices between companies. This is very-very old project and I don't believe it had anything illegal going on. My personal suspicions are that it is more political issue, rather than doing something illegal. Site was covering many news events, including showing off 'inefficiencies' of belarus government. I might be wrong tho.

out_of_protocol 12y ago

Actually alibaba-style catalog + gsmarena-arena-style product details catalog + IT News site + forum + other stuff. #2 site in the country

salimmadjd 12y ago

Having a dev a team there in Belarus I spent 4 months of that past 12 there. This seems to be about pricing. Because of the strong economic ties between Russia and Belarus, the sanctions in Russia is also causing a huge devaluation on Belarusian currency. My friends have been telling me of long lines at the banks to convert their money to Dollar. To prevent the rush, starting today, there is a 30% tax on converting your money to Dollar. Essentially a 30% devaluation of their currency. Since many things are imported in Belarus any currency devaluation effects the price of goods, so people rushed to stores to buy anything they can (and now I've been told the shelves are almost empty). But here's another issue, prices seem to be control by the government. For instance, when you go to restaurants all menus that have price on them, have a stamp and signature (think of it like a notarized stamp). This is so restaurants wont be able to increase the price as they wish. From the google translation, it seems to me the online store started increasing their prices to match the devaluated currency and the government didn't like it. Because it contradicts their message on stability of their currency. They might have done the same at a physical store in this case.

zihotki 12y ago
Belorussian here. Also there is a law which enforces you to sell 50% of foreign currency you get from selling your goods or services abroad (a few weeks ago it was only 30%). And that 30% fee you can not enlist into your expenses to reduce the taxes. So the importers and many of exporters are completely f*cked up. And today they went even further - the government introduced a law which locks all prices in all shops or the shop will be closed and the owner will have to pay a fine. Crazy times...

throughTheWay 12y ago

Original: http://news.tut.by/it/428870.html http://news.tut.by/it/428870.html (just so that the URL doesn't get masked by translate.google.com)

freemanoid 12y ago

Migrated to http://onliner.ru http://onliner.ru