Fwd: Congress Eyes Internet Fraud Crackdown

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 13:29:08 +0900
From: Adam Peake <ajp () glocom ac jp>
Subject: Congress Eyes Internet Fraud Crackdown
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To: dave () farber net

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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