The web sites panarchy.org and polyarchy.org have been shut down from the 26^th of May to the 16^th of June for reasons that have probably something to do with a political vendetta (Mafia style) by an Italian Web Hosting provider (Tiscali Italia) made possible by an American Internet Registrar (Network Solutions) that has behaved as a racketeer.

January 4^th, 2000: Registration of the Domain name polyarchy.org with Network Solution

March 11^th, 2001: Registration of the Domain name panarchy.org with Network Solution

These two domains of which I (Gian Piero de Bellis) am the Registrant, Administrative, Technical and Billing Contact, are then hosted by a Tiscali Italia Web server, with Tiscali Italia as a pure and simple Web Hosting Provider.

20 May 2009. I pay the fee to Tiscali Italia for another year of Web Hosting

26 May 2009. The web sites are shut down by Tiscali Italia. When I notice what has happened, I send a message informing them of my payment and asking the reasons for the suspension of the service.

27 May 2009. I received a reply from Tiscali Technical Department telling me to contact or send a fax to the Commercial Department.

28 May 2009. I send a fax to the Commercial Department with a photocopy of the receipt of my payment thinking that this will solve the problem. In theory, they should restore the service once received the fax.
With this justifiable hope, I go abroad for three days.

When I come back the web site are still nowhere to be seen and I have not received any reply to my fax.

1 June 2009. I decide to move my web sites to another Web Hosting provider. I discover I cannot do it because Tiscali Italia has appropriated the power of managing my web sites. Practically, they have expropriated me of my web sites with the approval and the assistance of the American Registrar Network Solutions. I realize that, in my case, the protection of property rights in the USA is similar to that offered in Zimbabwe (that is, nil)

At that point, I send a series of messages to Network Solutions and I receive only bureaucratic replies. Ms. Tracy Lillis of the Executive Office does not even bother to reply to any of the three messages I sent her; this shows how easily individuals get corrupted by the bureaucratic mentality and how badly they can behave.

4 June 2009. I send a Network Solutions Fax Authorization Form asking them to re-transfer the technical power to manage the two web sites back to me as Tiscali Italia is “totally unresponsive to my needs” (this is their bureaucratic formula). No reply whatsoever from Network Solutions

6 June 2009. I understand that my web sites had been put for sale (the two domain names) and I try to buy them from myself.

8 June 2009. Network Solutions Customer Service Team sends me an e-mail for one of their surveys that inquire how customers feel about the quality of their services. If I could exterminate all of them at the touch of a button, I would do it immediately. I fully realize that they have become a bureaucratic dinosaur just making a mess of everything they touch. In a free society, they would not be any longer a Web Registrar, not even in Zimbabwe.

9 June 2009. Network Solutions refuses to sell my websites to myself as I am listed as the buyer and the seller and even to bureaucratic people this is something quite unheard of.

I then understand that my domain names are in a redemption status and I am supposed to pay Network Solutions 150 dollars for each domain in order to redeem them (in other words to pay a small ransom in order to get back what should have been mine from the day I bought those domain names).

10 June 2009. I pay the ransom to Network Solutions as the only way to appease the racketeers and to start getting out of their reach.

The payment is accepted and I then try to move my web sites to the New Web Hosting Provider. This is not possible because Network Solutions still does not allow me to manage my account. They have changed my User ID without my permission and without informing me and I am now a non-entity with no web domains to my name. This is the brave new world of Kafka, Orwell and Huxley combined.

I decide that I have to run away from Network Solutions (the Registrar from Hell) as soon as possible.

13 June 2009. I ask Network Solutions for the Authorizations codes in order to move to another registrar.

16 June 2009. I move my domain names to another Registrar. Then, miraculously, I receive a message from Network Solutions with the code of access in order to change my DNS to my new Web Hosting provider, and later on I get a long phone call from Ms. Krista Quintrell (Executive Support) apologizing for what had happened. After a few hours my web sites are back.

Total time of disruption: 3 weeks.

Situation of the web sites with respect to search engines: a total disaster (from number 1 or 2 to number 0).

So, what are the lessons from all this? I guess they are the following:

1. Monopolists and racketeers are a permanent fixture of life under statism. The existence of the state, the territorial state or any form of state that protects Mafia companies is incompatible with the practice of laisser-faire laisser-passer. Current capitalism is just Mafia capitalism.
2. There are no means to defend ourselves (for the moment) other than naming and shaming the racketeers. This should help others to stay away from them until they go bankrupt.
3. Security and justice are not possible under statism. I have been advised not to start any legal action because it would be costly and useless. Tiscali Italia has acted probably with the protection of some state power that is not pleased about what I write on the panarchy and polyarchy web sites (a political vendetta).

Ps. Why I consider Tiscali Italia as a rotten failing company that cannot be saved, I hope that Network Solutions will change its way of behaving and will stop this immoral practice of blocking the passage from one Web Hosting Provider to another. If they do so and provide me with some proofs of abstaining from behaving in such an appalling way, I would be willing to acknowledge it in this page. Until then, my advice to everybody is to look for a better, more honest and more transparent Web Registrar.