Weekly column: Congress moves toward curbing online privacy [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5155054.html

Privacy reduction's next act
February 9, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh

The U.S. Congress is hard at work trying to punish Internet users who value 
their privacy.

That's not how Capitol Hill politicians describe a new bill introduced last 
week, of course, but that's what it would accomplish if it becomes law.

Called the Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act, the measure would 
increase prison sentences by up to seven years in criminal cases if someone 
provided "material and misleading false contact information to a domain 
name registrar, domain name registry, or other domain name registration 
authority." That's a reference to the Whois database that lists information 
about who owns each domain name.

In civil lawsuits, such as when the movie studios or the Recording Industry 
Association of America (RIAA) sue someone over copyright infringement, the 
bill would make it far easier for them to claim $150,000 in damages for 
each violation.

...

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