Maryland License Plates Now Inadvertently Advertising Filipino Online Casino

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4a3xe9/maryland-license-plates-now-inadvertently-advertising-filipino-online-casino

by isaacfrond • 3 years ago

225 115 3 years ago

vice.com

activiation• 3 years ago

They should send replacement plates to affected people.

VWWHFSfQ2• 3 years ago

nah just seize the domain

sclarisse• 3 years ago

While Maryland has been happy to use eminent domain to seize things for far more dubious reasons, like during the Baltimore Colts saga, those things typically have at least been in Maryland

last_responder• 3 years ago

No. Absolutely not.

jrochkind111• 3 years ago

As a Maryland resident who happens to have this special "commemorative" license plate, I do find this newsworthy and of interest.

I got my car in 2012 -- this was the "standard" plate for 2012-2016, that you got whether you wanted it or not (unless you paid for a "specialty plate", an existing program. https://mva.maryland.gov/about-mva/Pages/info/27300/27300-29...)

State MVA puts a URL it does not own or control in any way on a license plate that will last for decades, never even considers that the URL could change hands, is pretty hilarious.

I've hated this license plate for 11 years now -- I don't want to advertise flags and wars on my license plate. I wonder if via this snafu I can get them to replace it with a regular one; there seemed to be no normal way to ask for a standard one to replace this 2012 commemorative one up to now.

“The MVA does not endorse the views or content on the current website using that URL, and is working with the agency’s IT department to identify options to resolve the current issue.”

The "option," we all know, would be paying now-hostage-level price for buying the domain. I don't know whether I'd rather my tax dollars went to that or replacing the plate of any 2012 plate holder who asks. What I'd really rather is they stop spending any resources on annoying mandated special commemorative license plates. Bring back two-color solid license plates.

VWWHFSfQ2• 3 years ago

can't you just get a different license plate if you want to though

csbingel• 3 years ago

If you give more money to the incompetent agency, yes.

jrochkind111• 3 years ago

As far as I could tell, my options for doing that were:

1. Reporting my plate as stolen or damaged (assume there's a replacement fee, don't know how much)

2. Paying $20 and then $10/year forever for a "specialty" plate.

Granted, even though I'm complaining about this like a grumpy old man, I have spent probably 20 minutes on three occasions looking into it by googling. If someone can find a free way (or even reasonable one-time fee) for me to get a standard plate without having to lie about it being stolen or damaged (or getting someone to steal or damage it haha), do point me to the procedure. In general, as expected, doing most anything with the MVA is a really confusing maze of bureaucracy, so I have some conditioned fear of trying it even if there is a procedure (but I haven't found one).

I am now wondering what, say, Jehovah's Witnesses did, I bet they and/or other religious groups would not be okay with a flag on their car for religious reasons.

gwbas1c• 3 years ago

"You can just" and "Can't you just" phrases should trigger you to think twice.

The phrases show poor empathy on your part: It's a hassle to go to the RMV and get another plate, it's a hassle to update any place where your plate needs to be registered, it costs money...

hoofhearted2• 3 years ago

Maryland resident as well. I believe you payed a few extra dollars for the commemorative license plate.

The war that is being advertised is the one where the British were a bit frustrated that we didn’t accept their ways, and they were coming back to take what was theirs. They rolled up to DC and burned everything except a few buildings. Legend has it that Madison and family left the White House so fast that when the British arrived, the food was still warm on the table.

The British then rolled up to Baltimore thinking it would be an easy capture just like D.C. was.

They were wrong, and we ended up causing them to pack up and leave in defeat.

The war is prestigious to Maryland because over 3,000 militia members from Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania successfully kept the worlds superpower at bay, saving Baltimore and probably the rest of the country.

jrochkind111• 3 years ago

I believe you payed a few extra dollars for the commemorative license plate.

I am absolutely 100% positive that I neither paid extra dollars for the War of 1812 commemorative license plate, nor was offered an option -- this was the "standard" plate in 2012, no other "standard" plate was available, this was what you got unless you wanted to pay for a "specialty" plate.

Perhaps in 2013-2016 it was different. Or perhaps if you already had a standard pre-2012 plate, you could pay to replace it with the commemorative one? But if you were getting new plates in 2012, you got this one as the default option. I am sure.

Other interesting historical facts about the War of 1812 include all the native indian nations who allied with Great Britain in the desperate futile hope that somehow they could stop their inexorable disposession and ethnic cleansing by the USA.

pge• 3 years ago

It was also during the attack on Baltimore that Francis Scott Key wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner, a point of pride for Maryland

Naga• 3 years ago

Unrelated to the license plates, but the war is remembered differently in Canada, in Britain, and by historians. I think Wikipedia has it right calling the war "indecisive". In Canada, the war is remembered as the time we trounced the Yankees and burned the White House. The Brits don't think much of the war at all. Historians say its much more complicated of course, but the key facts to remember are (despite what the Canadians say) the troops that burned the White House were British regulars, not Canadian militia, and that the militia was highly unreliable and had significant levels of desertions (despite the national pride now). It's also good to keep in mind that Britain was in the midst of a total war with Napoleonic France and that the Americas were a sideshow. The US distinguished itself early with the frigate battles, like the Constitution vs Java, but then there was the Shannon vs Chesapeake.

mumblemumble• 3 years ago

The US declared war. They were pissed off about many things, but one of the more notable ones was that they were frustrated that the UK was supporting the sovereignty of Native American nations, which hindered the westward expansion that many people in the US viewed as their birthright.

The UK was actively making concessions to try and avoid war. The United States declared war anyway.

The UK then taking the fight to DC was absolutely fair game. People are allowed to fight back when you attack them.

Kon-Peki• 3 years ago

The war is prestigious to Maryland because over 3,000 militia members from Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania successfully kept the worlds superpower at bay, saving Baltimore and probably the rest of the country.

They didn't learn from it, because at the other end of the war, the British regulars were decisively handled by another ragtag group that they didn't think much of.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans

dotancohen• 3 years ago

I can think of at least a dozen other undeveloped peoples who successfully kept the Brits, then the worlds superpower, at bay. Superpower or not, infantry was never the British forte. In my opinion, logistics was. But logistics wins wars, not battles.

naravara2• 3 years ago

That's a pretty one-sided description of the War of 1812. The whole thing was a bit of a fiasco and an attempted land-grab of territories controlled by Native American nations allied to the British by hawkish Senators from border states who wanted to make a name for themselves by advocating for it. The war ended with the British agreeing to status quo ante-bellum, even though America started the war. The general upshot is just that the British-allied Native Americans were, by treaty, supposed to have their territorial integrity respected but the British didn't think it was worth the hassle to enforce those provisions so those Native Americans all got pushed aside.

It doesn't really have clear "winners" or "losers." Really more like Britain getting stung by a bee while it was in the middle of something (War with France) and finding that rather inconvenient, but successfully fending off the bee's (America's) attempt to take its house.

systems_glitch3• 3 years ago

Hear, hear! Two color plain stamped plates. Our vehicle's tags don't need to be a weird advert no one cares about. It's bad enough to get forced into paying for a reissue (remember when NY changed to yellow-and-blue and started charging for keeping the old plates?), doubly so when it's for some bureaucrat's amusement on having a "fun" plate.

Symbiote2• 3 years ago

The European way is even plainer: countries choose either black on white or black on yellow.

The country puts their code ("DK", "S" etc) on the left.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_vehicle_registration_...

bsagdiyev3• 3 years ago

Eh, I like my choice of plate design here in NC.

Our previous, Save The Honeybee: https://scontent-iad3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/138097239_1...

Current, NC Aquariums: https://www.obxtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/NCA-plat...

Next, Venus Flytrap: https://i.redd.it/v1d1vce3uks31.jpg

Funds from these support the cause on the plate typically.

joenot443• 3 years ago

Depending on how sophisticated the operators are, it's possible hostage level pricing could still be low six figures. They may not actually realize just how valuable what they've scooped up actually is. At government scale, I'd actually say anything <$1m is probably less costly in total than any kind of action involving replacing a recall of rollback or existing plates.

ct0• 3 years ago

They could change the law in MD allowing these plates to cover the URL with a sticker. Hopefully of a url of your choosing.

jacquesm2• 3 years ago

Maybe just slap a sticker on the URL?

moomoo112• 3 years ago

As if war and flags didn’t build the society you enjoy today. And they will build the society for future generations to enjoy. Whether they like it or not.

jrochkind111• 3 years ago

Of things that built the society I enjoy today, I am fully aware that, for instance, enslaved labor and stolen land built the society I enjoy today -- I am not in favor of the government forcing me to advertise that fact positively on my car.

Certainly human history is full of war and violence, and that is what has led to where we are, sure. That doesn't mean we need to glorify it. Or that the state has to impose the glorification of it on car identification plates.

What's with the proto-fascism on HN these days? Scary times.

phpisthebest2• 3 years ago

One of the side benefits of driving a truck is that most states do not do anything to their Truck Plates..

Mine is a Plain white piece of metal, with black letters, no logo, no seals, no anything. White and black

CatWChainsaw2• 3 years ago

Would you be willing to try replacing your plates with Chesapeake Bay plates? I don't recall the add-on being that high.

jrochkind111• 3 years ago

$20 then $10/renewal forever. Renewal I guess is every two years?

RandallBrown3• 3 years ago

I don't want to advertise flags and wars on my license plate

I chuckled a little at this because the Maryland flag is on EVERYTHING in Maryland, including the current standard license plate.

Larrikin• 3 years ago

To be fair the Maryland flag is easily one of the best state flags. It fails the "Could you easily draw it from memory" test but the design and color scheme more than makes up for that. I'd put it everywhere too.

bigbacaloa• 3 years ago

You don't have to drive

JohnFen• 3 years ago

State MVA puts a URL it does not own or control in any way on a license plate that will last for decades, never even considers that the URL could change hands, is pretty hilarious.

I'm not a resident, but I found this hilarious as well. I think putting any URL on a license plate (or similar) is poor form, actually, but one that you don't actually control and take pains to ensure you keep registered? Hilarious level incompetency right there.

culopatin• 3 years ago

I wonder if they would be more active in trying to fix it if it was some weird fetish porn site

interestica• 3 years ago

For people into girls named Mary?

helsinkiandrew• 3 years ago

Is it legal for US citizens to use that gambling site in the US?

I thought the US courts believe .com and .org to be 'in' the US and have seized gambling .com domains that are targeting US citizens in the past.

jazzyjackson• 3 years ago

Welcome to America's Hottest Talkline.

mauvehaus• 3 years ago

People wondering what the heck this is about should go listen to episode 167 of Reply All[0]. It's been a couple of years since I heard it, but IIRC, the talk line in question squats on disused phone numbers that were similarly published on long-lasting media. Or that the publishers forgot to get allocated, or similar.

That's the very TL;DR version made hazy by the passage of time. Apologies for no doubt missing any number of salient points.

[0] https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/awh2a4

bdw5204• 3 years ago

If the government is going to put a domain name on license plates, you'd think it would make sure the domain name stays registered as long as the license plates remain in use. They're lucky it was snatched up by a casino and not something worse like hardcore pornography or a hate group.

To fix this, the state of Maryland should identify everybody who still has this license plate and send them a replacement plate in the current style. They have that information in a database somewhere, associated with names and addresses, so they should be able to run a simple query. If not, that means they probably need to fund a project to upgrade their databases to a modern implementation of SQL.

bombcar3• 3 years ago

Government plates should use .gov or some similar tightly controlled domain (.edu might be acceptable).

Florida has "myflorida.com" which is an official government website, but .com is not a limited and controlled TLD; so in theory registration could fail and someone scoop it up.

If it were "myflorida.gov" that would be much less likely.

ahahahah http://myflorida.gov redirects to dot com (it's dot muffin)!

vxNsr• 3 years ago

They probably registered the .com before .gov was easy to get. FWIW when I click your .gov link I get an SSL warning in safari on iOS.

LeifCarrotson• 3 years ago

They should have done that, but it probably took a contractor minutes to create a TEMPORARY, EXAMPLE domain like "starspangled200.org."

The plan would have been to change this later to read md.gov/starspangled200, which will 301 redirect to maryland.gov/starspangled200, which needs to be made to point to a new starspangled200.maryland.gov subdomain because the Windows server running www.maryland.gov requires everything to be under the www.maryland.gov/Pages/<page name>.aspx URL scheme... But project management ran over budget, and the people who needed to be contacted about those changes couldn't be reached, and when the subcontractor's project manager talked to the vendor's project manager who emailed the wrong government IT department, some information was lost. The necessary forms needed to be filed, but to do so the contractor needed a particular vendor ID number and approval for that takes months, how many more projects do you plan to do for the state? And anyways starspangled200.com looks pretty clean, do we really want to do this optional redirect? So they spent some pocket change and registered it for 10 years, and handed off the task of renewing it to some administrator who could spell DNS but knew nothing else about it with a stern warning that things would break if it was not renewed.

Disclaimer: I have no specific knowledge of this project.

RandallBrown3• 3 years ago

There's a common belief that .org domains are much more tightly controlled than they are. They may have thought they were doing the right thing.

dragonwriter• 3 years ago

Government plates should use .gov or some similar tightly controlled domain (.edu might be acceptable).

Most government entities are not qualified for .edu.

For a while (pretty long ago, I think early 00s, maybe even late 90s) GSA (who managed .gov. at the time) made some noises about narrowing it further (may have even closed noncompliant registration for a while, while keeping grandfathered ones) to federal government sites only, which led to a lots states using .com or .<state>.us domains for nongrandfathered domains, and even adopting them as preferred sites where they had grandfathered domains.

The policy direction died fairly quickly, but the impacts were more lasting.

jmclnx• 3 years ago

The website printed on the plates is not owned by the Motor Vehicle Administration.

Where there is the problem. Maryland sub-contracted out the site, probably stopped paying for it or the "contractor" closed done. Someone grabbed it.

Well I hope Maryland is enjoying what may be mo more than 10 cents per year per plate they are saved in taxing people. And as a bonus, they also are now giving out free advertising.

Next step, force people to replace the plates and maybe charge them a fee for doing that.

dylan6042• 3 years ago

You left out the last half of the quote which is just as telling to me, "and is working with the agency’s IT department to identify options to resolve the current issue.”

Their options are Jack & Shit, and Jack already left town. You think this gambling site is going to voluntarily give back the domain for pittance that this state agency could afford to offer it? You think a DMV of a state is going to come up with the funds for a highly publicized domain squabble? The public blowback from that should be intense. The agency's IT department has already shown their incompetence and lack of funding by not being able to pay the registration fees for a domain long enough for something they used on an official state "document".

sp332• 3 years ago

Even though the original company went out of business, maybe the trademark is still owned by someone. They could use ICANN's dispute channels to challenge ownership of the name.

jrochkind111• 3 years ago

The good news is, the number of people who actually haver ever followed the URL found on the bottom of the license plate is probably pretty darn minimal.

maybe slightly higher since you can get your phone to automatically picture-to-text recognize it instead of having to type it in yourself, but... probably still pretty minimal.

I mean, I'm most shocked that anyone noticed the url's contents have changed! I wonder how long it took anyone to.

arp242• 3 years ago

Domain was last updated in Nov 2022. It's been displaying this since at least December: https://web.archive.org/web/20221202223252/https://www.stars...

So it's taken over half a year before the media to notice.

nemo44x• 3 years ago

Nothing from a government entity should ever have anything other than a .gov or similar TLD associated with it.

efields• 3 years ago

Lesson learned. I don't think this is worth more thought other than reflection, hopefully by someone close to this decision, hopefully by someone who can put in some recourse to minimize the chance of this happening again.

This is hilarious and inevitable.

ryandrake• 3 years ago

I always wonder if anyone really even learns anything from these kinds of episodes. They probably didn't even know the URL was gone until the media reported it. I'd be willing to bet nobody responsible is going to even give it thought or reflection, let alone produce a post-mortem and change any of their internal processes.

This is hilarious and inevitable.

Hilarious, yes, but only inevitable because of widespread incompetence. Whenever I get a little Impostor Syndrome and question my own competence at my own job, it feels good to read these kinds of articles to reassure myself that there are people out there orders of magnitude less competent.

nova22033• 3 years ago

It would be funnier if the domain was bought by a drivers ed school..

daveaiello• 3 years ago

I guess you need to do a 'whois' on whatever domain is printed on the license plates you are about to receive, before you accept them?

jollyllama• 3 years ago

I understand why people are upset about this but this is probably among the least intrusive gambling ads that we have to deal with. What if the only legal form of gambling advertising was urls on the back of license plates that states auctioned off? In principle, it would be terrible, but in practice, it'd be a great improvement.

aimor2• 3 years ago

I just registered a domain for 10 years (the maximum allowed) and was wondering how likely I was to remember to renew. Auto-pay probably wouldn't work with credit card numbers changing. I might still be using the same email or at least have it forwarded. A phone calendar reminder? I did that once long ago and when changing phones the reminders didn't sync correctly. Maybe buy a physical 10 year calendar.

Anyway, I figure that's what happened here from 2012 to 2022.

consp• 3 years ago

Do credit card numbers change? I thought only the expiration date changed and maybe the cvc code or equivalent security check.

onychomys• 3 years ago

If somebody steals your number, your bank (or credit card company) will send you a new physical card with a new number. Or at least mine did, ymmv.

RandallBrown3• 3 years ago

Auto payments usually fail when the card is expired.

aimor2• 3 years ago

That's true, it's the expiration and code that change.

Gordonjcp• 3 years ago

Why can't you just go and get a new number plate, without an advert on it?

In the UK you just take your vehicle registration document to any motor accessories shop and have them make up a plate, for not much money.

jcrawfordor• 3 years ago

Only the state (and a few odd cases like the federal government) manufacture plates in the US, and they usually don't have a published process exactly for obtaining a new plate when you already have one. That said, my experience in a couple of states is that DMV clerks have no problem putting in a plate as lost/damaged/stolen if you just ask for a new one. The fee where I live today is only $15, but I live in a poor state, Maryland might be steeper.

bsagdiyev3• 3 years ago

Yeah it isn't that hard. File it as lost/stolen and get a replacement. When I sold my last car I forgot to turn in my NC amateur radio plate with my callsign. I guess they recycle them. When I went to finally do it the lady at the license plate office just marked it lost/stolen and let me keep it.

cpeterso• 3 years ago

The email addresses for Lafayette, California’s police ”tip line” are random Gmail addresses: 94549Tip@gmail.com and 94549Traffic@gmail.com. How is that not a problem for government record keeping? At least the Gmail addresses won’t expire like Maryland’s domain name registration.

https://www.lovelafayette.org/city-hall/city-departments/pol...

somat• 3 years ago

Had to look it up but that is the zip code for Lafayette. it was probably the best out of several bad choices.

A direct gmail domain is understandable for a small city government but it does look unprofessional. I liked how governments were one of the few organizations that took advantage of the hierarchical nature of dns, you would get things like dmv.ca.gov and courts.sf.ca.gov Unfortunately that is going away as well. everybody has to have a second level domain and now you have stupid things like lovelafayette.org instead of lafayette.ca.gov

dghughes• 3 years ago

The War of 1812? What a bizarre thing to commemorate.

If anything it was a draw and I say that as a Canadian. The USA were the aggressors and never got anything so really it was a loss for the US.

rocket_surgeron• 3 years ago

Maryland put "War of 1812" on the plates because of the Battle of Baltimore, specifically the siege of Fort McHenry, which inspired Marylander Francis Scott Key to write the poem that would later become the national anthem.

Fort McHenry is in the lower left of the license plate.

The star spangled banner flies above it.

The "bombs bursting in air" are the fireworks.

It doesn't commemorate the war, it commemorates the anthem, it just says "War of 1812" because that's when the event occurred.

It was a terrible design but I've got amateur radio plates so I avoided it.

MR4D• 3 years ago

“The MVA does not endorse the views or content on the current website using that URL…”

Maybe they should learn that they did actually endorse it, and they should be liable for it.

Imagine if the NBA put that same link on their jerseys, and then a white supremacist organization bought out the URL. Would they be liable for “endorsing” it? Of course they would! Same for Maryland. Morons.

bastard_op• 3 years ago

Having worked for a lot of my local state agencies including DOT, they're always run by goobers and not at all surprised something like this happened. Someone was too lazy to renew the domain, and chaos ensues once a domain scalper gets a hold of it. Someone probably bought it because they didn't know why, but it got a lot of random traffic from the eastern US.

It's registered at godaddy currently, if they were smart they'd transfer the domain to an unfriendly and very non-nato country quickly if this bubbles over somewhere officially. I'd probably have opted to just redirect to a random fetish porn site for grins, but if you have a gambling empire and stand to profit why not, you already have free marketing for life courtesy of the Maryland government.

Maryland License Plates Now Inadvertently Advertising Filipino Online Casino

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