FC: Sen. Mary Landrieu wants to force ICANN to create ".p0rn"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

An anonymous Politech member (thank you!) sent along the PDF version of 
this bill. It is not yet on thomas.loc.gov, so here you go:
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/landrieu.s2137.bill.pdf

I have co-authored an IETF Internet Draft warning against this approach:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01772.html

Here's the meat of the bill: "Any operator of a commercial Internet web 
site or online service that has as its principal or primary business the 
making available of material that is harmful to minors shall register such 
web site or online service with the new domain and operate such web site or 
online service under the new domain."

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03411.html

-Declan

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From: "White, Sam" <Sam.White () mail house gov>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: U.S. senator plans to make secret videotaping a federal crime
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:49:44 -0400

Hi Declan -

I've actually looked at this bill (S. 2137) myself, and it also has a couple
other provisions that the politech folks might be interested in.
Specifically, it would require ICANN to create a new TLD for sites with
content deemed "harmful to minors" and would require sites that have such
content to register under that tld.  It would establish civil penalties for
violations of that part.

The bill would also require spammers and others to include "marks or
notices" in emails containing a sexually oriented advertisement if sent to a
minor.  It would make it a criminal offense to knowingly send email "without
mark or notice" to a minor.

These two provisions actually make up the vast majority of the bill - the
video voyeurism part is only about 4.5 pages (of 18).

Regards,
Sam

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Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:18:20 -0400
From: "Charles Sims" <CSims () proskauer com>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: U.S. senator plans to make secret videotaping a
 federalcrime

Landrieu's surreptitious videotaping bill would seem to be well beyond 
Congress's power to enact, given the Supreme Court's recent decisions 
striking down the law barring guns in schoolyards and sanctioning violence 
against women on commerce clause and federalism grounds.

Charles S. Sims
Proskauer Rose LLP
1585 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
212.969.3950  tel.
212.969.2900  fax
csims () proskauer com

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Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 12:14:31 -0700
To: declan () well com
From: [deleted]
Subject: Re: FC: U.S. senator plans to make secret videotaping a federal
 crime

   In addition, the bill would set up an Internet domain (such as .prn)
   for material harmful to minors and requires all websites containing
   such material to register on that domain name. Any websites currently
   on other domains (such as .com, .org, etc.) would be required to close
   down those sites and move to the new domain.

Gee, what a brilliant idea to segregate material that is "harmful to 
minors."  That's so easy to recognize!  I look forward to the day when 
McDonalds, tobacco manufacturers, Planned Parenthood and sites exposing the 
non-existence of Santa Claus are banished to .prn  and my child once again 
is safe in her childhood innocence . . .

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Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 12:29:03 -0700
From: David Brownell <david-b () pacbell net>
Subject: Re: U.S. senator plans to make secret videotaping a federal crime
To: declan () well com, politech () politechbot com

>        Under the bill, any person who
>     uses a camera or similar recording device to record another individual
>     either for a lewd or lascivious purpose without that person's consent
>     is in violation of the law.

But why only for "lewd or lascivious purpose"?  It's not like
it should be OK for other purposes either.

It's odd how only prurient applications of technology seem
to get any attention on privacy grounds (pro or con).  That
makes for weaker protections overall, since it makes the
question "was intent prurient" not "did it violiate privacy".

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From: "Robert V. Zwink" <rzwink () microcenter com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: RE: U.S. senator plans to make secret videotaping a federal crime
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:22:26 -0400

Did you read the final paragraph of this article?

    "In addition, the bill would set up an Internet domain (such as .prn)
    for material harmful to minors and requires all websites containing
    such material to register on that domain name. Any websites currently
    on other domains (such as .com, .org, etc.) would be required to close
    down those sites and move to the new domain."

What's this all about?  Have I been asleep or something?  I thought this
kind of stuff was for parents to decide, not the federal government.

-Rob Z.

---

From: tkk () pobox com
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:18:10 -0400
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: U.S. senator plans to make secret videotaping a
  federal crime

At 10:49 AM 4/18/02 -0700, you wrote:
>    [In addition, the bill would set up an Internet domain (such as .prn)
>    for material harmful to minors and requires all websites containing
>    such material to register on that domain name. Any websites currently
>    on other domains (such as .com, .org, etc.) would be required to close
>    down those sites and move to the new domain.]

Declan -

This part is a joke, right?  A domain .prn as in pr0n ,,, and what is the 
penalty for not meeting the requirement to this portion of the bill; not to 
mention that it doesn't define exactly what it is that is harmful to these 
"minors".

Re: "Video Voyeur" -- I don't have teevee so sadly can't watch Lifetime. Is 
there a synopsis of the story somewhere?  Maybe at the good Senator's office...

Cheers
~~tkk

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