RE: Post vs. Times (was Is Verisign Breaking th e Law)

["Hornstein, Johann (Hans)" <HHornstein () sempra com>]

If I recall correctly, you're thinking of the Washington TIMES that's owned
and run by the Moonies -- the Post is the more respected of the two main
Washington papers.

--
Hans Hornstein


-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan A. Zdziarski [mailto:jonathan () nuclearelephant com] 
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 7:45 AM
To: Dennis Oelkers
Cc: full-disclosure () lists netsys com
Subject: [Full-disclosure] Is Verisign Breaking the Law [Was: Re: Petition
against Verislime's DNS Abuse]


Isn't the Post still run by the Moonies?



That's right. At least that Washington Post article (
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A996-2003Sep12.html>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A996-2003Sep12.html)

was a start, and I'm quite sure some others will follow.


You know this has got me wondering if Verisign may soon be breaking the new
Cybersquatting law that was recently passed by the House.  The bill as I
recall, backed by the MPAA (so they ARE good for something!) was designed to
protect online trademarks by making it illegal to use similar sounding
domain names to capture unfortunate web users who mis-spelled the domain.

If this bill were to pass the senate (and I don't believe it's gotten shot
down yet, although there is speculation), Verisign could be liable for up to
$100,000 in damages _per domain_ they squatted.  The fact that this bill
also protects people from hitting nasty porn sites when they misspell
domains may be the one thing that pushes it through the senate.  Definitely
an interesting perspective; looking at this as trademark infringement by
Verisign.