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Whois Record Falsification Closer To Illegality
PipianJ writes "Reuters is reporting that the House of Representatives has recently passed the bill that would approve of penalties for those using fraudulent WHOIS records (H.R. 3632). Interestingly however, this does not directly outlaw it, instead extending the penalty by seven years for felonies performed using such fraudulent websites. The Senate has not yet passed their version (S.2242). The bill as originally written, however, focuses primarily on penalties for promoting counterfeit music, computer programs, and other media with identical labeling."
I will confess that much my knowledge of federal penalties is second hand, having lived with two former federal agents most of my life, but what good does this do, really? The federal penalties for most crimes seem to already be aimed at simply "crushing the perp and ruining him/her forever" rather than anything resembling pursuit of justice.
Yet another good reason to vote for Michael Badnarik in November. He wants to move us toward a system based on restitution, not simply locking the perp away and throwing away the key.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
"The government must play a greater role in detecting those who conceal their identities online," said Texas Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, a sponsor of the bill.
Scared yet?
http://domainsbyproxy.com/
Nuff said.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
Flat out and to the point: I have a right to privacy.
My domain is a personal one. It's not meant to be a high profile public site... I get maybe 5 anonymous visitors a month.. why should I provide valid whois info? I don't feel comfortable with doing that and I will NEVER provide real info.
Instead, how about making sites that involve monetary transactions register valid names?
I don't give a rat's ass if "this is the internet, it's public," my right to privacy is my own. If you don't like it, tough shit. If they wanna make it illegal, then bring it on - I still won't provide valid info.
What are they gonna do?
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
as it stands, 1st of all, it is _not_ illegal to use fake WHOIS records, even under the provisions of the legislature being discussed. All this does is to add jail time (up to 7 years according to the wording of the bill) to those that then go on to use the fraudulent domain for spamming,fraud,con activities. It just makes the punishment for those that are already doing illegal things worse.
/.
i run an internationally political website, and if I used my real name, phone, address, etc, I would have been physically attacked, at best. This law does not affect me in any way as I am not doing any fraud, spam, con-games, nigerian emails, or what have you.
I would add that other laws that have been struck down HAVE made what I am doing illegal, fortunately nothing like that has stuck. In summary, the discussed law is not a problem for anyone, as long as they are not spammers, fraudsters, nigerians, etc.
Agreed, its a step in the wrong direction. But as for now, as long as you are not engaged in other illegal activities, you (should not) dont have to worry.
this merely adds penalties onto already illegal activities if you fake your WHOIS records.
I am not a lawyer, but I play one on
I don't really care if the domain manager knows my home address and e-mail, but why the hell to does the whole goddam world have to see it?
Table-ized A.I.