[IP] Fwd: Congress Eyes Internet Fraud Crackdown
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 13:29:08 +0900
From: Adam Peake <ajp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Congress Eyes Internet Fraud Crackdown
X-Sender: ajp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Seems an important (and probably very bad) bit of legislation.
Susan Crawford gives a good summary and warning, see
<http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/2/3/17811.html>
Thomas Roessler provides some notes on the hearing
<http://log.does-not-exist.org/archives/001227.html>
Mark Bohannon was speaking for the Copyright Coalition for Domain Names, an
organization which represents, among others, the Motion Picture Association
of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),
BMI, and the Software Publishers Association.
Thanks,
Adam Peake
GLOCOM Tokyo
--
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13538-2004Feb4.html>
Congress Eyes Internet Fraud Crackdown
By David McGuire
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 4, 2004; 5:44 PM
Congress is expanding its focus on the growing business of online fraud
with the introduction of new legislation that would mandate stiffer
sentences for anyone who commits a crime using a Web site registered under
a false name.
The "Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act," sponsored by Reps. Lamar
Smith (R-Texas) and Howard Berman (D-Calif.), would add as much as seven
years to prison sentences handed out to anyone committing fraud through a
Web site registered under a false name or contact in formation. And it
would permit copyright owners to seek larger monetary damages from people
who falsify their registration information to run Web sites that distribute
copyrighted material without permission.
"The Government must play a greater role in punishing those who conceal
their identities online, particularly when they do so in furtherance of a
serious federal criminal offense or in violation of a federally protected
intellectual property right," Smith said at a hearing on the topic today.
Smith and Berman drafted the bill after receiving complaints from the
entertainment and software industries that much of their material is made
available for free on Web sites whose owners are impossible to track down
because their domain name registrations often contain made-up names like
"John Doe" and phone numbers like "123-4567."
The information is stored in public "whois" databases that are run by
registrars, the businesses that sell Internet addresses. The Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which oversees the
Internet's addressing system under an agreement with the U.S. government,
says registrars must require their customers to submit accurate information
when they sign up for an address.
The proposal could run up against opposition from privacy advocates who say
that information like home addresses and telephone numbers should not be
made available if the registrant does not want it revealed.
They say that the information would make the databases a welcome hunting
ground for unscrupulous marketers, identity thieves and stalkers.
"Because of the way whois is currently structured, there are a lot of
reasons why users might submit false information that have nothing to do
with copyright infringement," said Michael Steffen, a policy analyst at the
Center for Democracy and Technology.
The CDT said that access some personal contact information should be
restricted to law enforcement officers and copyright owners.
Defending the rights of domain owners to submit false or incomplete
information to domain registrars, Marv Johnson, an attorney with the
American Civil Liberties Union, noted that the U.S. Constitution
"recognizes that you have a right to anonymous communication."
The bill would not affect people who are trying to safeguard their privacy
because it only makes it a crime to submit false registration data when it
is done to help commit a crime, said Mark Bohannon, senior vice president
for public policy at the Software & Information Industry Association, which
supports the bill.
Bohannon added that ICANN should enforce its policy of terminating
contracts with domain name holders whose information is found to be
inaccurate, but "is either unable or unwilling" to do so. Intellectual
property groups have complained for several years that ICANN has not
enforced its policy.
ICANN "takes these issues very seriously" but has not decided whether to
support the bill, said spokesman Kieran Baker.
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