First Ever Criminal Arrest For Domain Name Theft

Domain Name News writes "Until recently, there hasn't been a case of a domain theft where the thief was caught and arrested. However, on July 30th, Daniel Goncalves was arrested at his home in Union, New Jersey and charged in a landmark case, the first criminal arrest for domain name theft in the United States. 'Cases of domain name theft have not typically involved a criminal prosecution because of the complexities, financial restraints and sheer time and energy involved. If a domain name is stolen, the victim of the crime in most cases would need experience with the technical and legal intricacies associated with the domain name system. To move the case forward, they would also need a law enforcement professional who understands the case or is willing to take the time to learn. For example, the Angels told us that in their case they called their local law enforcement in Florida who sent a uniformed officer in a squad car to their home. The first thing you can imagine the officer asked was, "What's a domain?"'"

Comments

Re:Oh, Those Dumb Police Officers!

[oodaloop]

Not sure if you picked up on the sarcasm there Joe. And BTW, pot smoking is ILLEGAL. Police officers are just doing their job. If you have a problem with the law, VOTE or STFU. I'm not even going to go into the vagaries of arm-chair second guessing the decisions of every instance of taser-use and the feasibility of asking about heart conditions during hand-to-hand conflict. I don't see how using a taser makes them fascist pigs in any case, but hey.

and enforce the fucked up laws we have in the United States is a stupid, fascist pig

Like, you know, the abolition on murder, rape, theft, arson, etc.

What is the ethnic background of Daniel Goncalves?

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the ethnic background of Daniel Goncalves? Is he Hispanic?

Re:Oh, Those Dumb Police Officers!

[TooMuchToDo]

If someone is breaking into my home at 2am, they better hope they can run faster than buckshot. The call is for the cops or coroner to come clean up the mess.

Re:What is the ethnic background of Daniel Goncalv

[Mister Whirly]

Asking a question about the ethnicity of a name does not automatically make one a racist. If he would have followed up with "because Hispanics are known for stealing" then that would be a racist statement. Simply inquiring about someone's name is not racist in and amongst itself.

Re:What is the ethnic background of Daniel Goncalv

[Runaway1956]

Racist, my ass. I've never seen or heard the name Goncalves used anywhere except in reference to this one guy. Surely the name isn't unique - it came from somewhere. GP posted, apparently wondering where it DID come from. Your post satisfied my curiosity about the origin of the name. Thank you for that.

Beyond the origin of a name, there ARE TIMES when it helps to know an ethnic background. People all the time make reference to the fact that this an Ameri-centric board. Knowing ethnic background can tell as much about a person as knowing his nationality. If questioning Goncales' name is racist, then every bastid who identifies himself as American, or European, or Asian is a racist as well. Posters sometimes identify themselves as Protestant, Catholic, or Wiccan to help make a point, or to help understand a point. They must all be bigots of one type or another as well.

Again - thanks for the info, but try not to judge the question. GP might be racist, but the question is neutral.

Biased modding and idiotic statements

[painehope]

From both sides. Every pro-gun or anti-police statement is modded down. Yet this kind of crap (about getting arrested for manslaughter for defending one's home) gets modded up. I can personally tell you in Texas, if they're on your property and you shoot them, you can tell the cops whatever you want. It's your property, so you're in the right. End of story. And I've seen both sides of it (had an acquaintance when I was a teenager killed by an irate father when he snuck up to a girl's window to visit her, and also have used lethal force to defend my own property).

And yes, most cops are assholes. But even they can't make an unreasonable charge stick. So I stand with Mr. Buckshot. My 12-gauge combat shotgun lies within easy reach of my bed. Period.

Re:Biased modding and idiotic statements

[sumdumass]

In Ohio, it similar but they have to be in the house and presenting a danger that makes you fear for you life of someone else' life. And yes, like you I have been on the dishing out side.

A girl I used to run around with claimed she was raped by a guy she knew. I offered to let her stay with me for a while in the spare bedroom. I have several guns and was actually in the process of showing her how to load and unload a couple of them when someone kicked the door in and proceeded to strike her on the head with a baseball bat. He got one hit in that glanced down the left side of head and broke her collar bone before I shot and killed him. It probably would have been worse if it wasn't for the back of the couch interfering with his aim. He didn't even flinch when I yelled at him to stop and was unconcerned about my presence. He was intending to kill her plain and simple and the entire situation took place in less then 30 seconds. I barely had time to stand up before the first strike was made and he was yelling "I'm going to fucking kill you" as soon as his eyes met her.

Re:Biased modding and idiotic statements

[pnewhook]

if they're on your property and you shoot them, you can tell the cops whatever you want.

Well if you are the sort of person to lie to justify killing someone, then I hope you can sleep at night. Good luck in hell too.

And yes, most cops are assholes.

Well with that attitude. Gee I wonder why you get modded down a lot...

Re:Biased modding and idiotic statements

[painehope]

Well, I didn't want to drag the rest of the story into it and make the off-topic post as complicated as the original scenario was, but the guy was (a) Black, (b) tripping on acid, and (c) stark naked. The girl was okay with him getting shot, because she was the girlfriend of a good friend of mine (my best friend actually, to the point where we call each other "brother by a different mother") and he'd already beat the fuck out of the guy for hitting on his girl. While the Black guy had been a friend of hers (and my brother as well), that had ended when he started hitting on her. As a White man, if I found a Black teenager naked outside my daughter's window in the wee hours, I'd blow his ass away too (I'd do the same for am unknown, naked White guy as well, but being of a different race only compounds the idiocy of his actions...I know the politically correct and socially/scientifically ignorant crowd can't accept this, but for many reasons - especially genetic and social ones - I do not condone miscegenation; before everyone starts screaming "racist!", I have friends and colleagues of all races, but they share my opinion of interracial "romance" - it leads to nothing but problems, often violent or fatal ones...recent example : http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2539094/Model-Amy-Leigh-Barnes-chilling-999-call.html). Besides, this wasn't even romance. She didn't want him there, and he had the misfortune of waking her father. Though it might be a good thing, considering the fact that no one really knew whether his intentions were just to visit her or if they were more sinister than just being wasted and annoying.

I felt somewhat bad for the guy, because I don't think he meant any real harm and it's been my experience that Black people don't do well on acid (every single Black person I've ever known that took acid wigged out and dig dumb shit to one degree or another on LSD-25). But what he did was very stupid (not to mention creepy), high or not, and he paid the price for it. I didn't shed any tears (about a year later) for some guys that my brother and I sold acid to that tried to rob a Burger King while tripping and ended up a in a shoot-out with the law that killed several of them, either, so why would I have a problem with it?

Do stupid things and pay the price for the it. Pretty simple concept.

Re:Biased modding and idiotic statements

[painehope]

Hey, dickhead, way to jump to conclusions! I did not say anything about lying. I actually meant how much or how little you choose to disclose (though I did not make that as clear as I should have, so a little turd like you can misconstrue it however you want). In one event where I used lethal force to defend myself and my ex-wife on my property, I merely told the police that the guy threatened us, started to physically assault me (by grabbing me, but I didn't say that detail as it was irrelevant as to how he put his hands on me), and I took appropriate measures to defend myself and my wife (without going into any details whatsoever, as that's where the DA gets their justification to hang your ass). Anything else they wanted to discuss they could do so with my lawyer. That's the smartest route in any case where you are dealing with the police, no matter what's going on. Say nothing, or as little as possible, and let your lawyer handle the rest. Because in this incident they did attempt to prosecute me (interestingly enough, not until 6 months or so down the road when the FBI was trying to put pressure on me to pursue a racketeering - RICO act - case against some friends and possibly myself as well). The grand jury threw the case out after reviewing the scanty evidence, but I didn't hear one word back from the police until they later had a use for the incident.

If I'm on my own property and shoot someone, I don't need to lie about it. If someone even so much as threatens you or trespasses on your property, you are justified in killing them (just make sure you do kill them, so they don't try to sue you later on, as some people have found out). And, for the record, I have never killed anyone unless it was (a) in a combat situation, (b) self-defense, or (c) defending or avenging a friend or family member. I try to live as peacefully as possible in a not-so-peaceful world, but I also don't take shit from people that mistake kindness for weakness. So I don't think I'll be burning in hell for that. And I don't have any problems sleeping over those things either, thanks for asking!

And I generally don't get modded down for most of my comments (technical or not). I was making the point about the other comments getting modded down in a pattern that indicated a bias based upon personal opinions rather than the actual content of the posts. As for my attitude towards police, it's based entirely upon my personal experience and observations. If you'll look up the history of my comments in a recent /. argument about police, their mentality, and my experiences with their incompetence, arrogance, cruelty, unwarranted aggression, and flagrant violation of simple, common-sense human rights and the laws they are supposed to be upholding), you'll note that none of my posts were modded down and some were modded up.

And to comment on the actual story here, what I see is a case of two parties that aren't really using the DNS system as it's intended (a cracker stealing from a squatter...the guilty party has technical knowledge, at least to some degree, whereas the victim has no technical abilities and is merely taking advantage of "business trends" - I don't think this is what the spirit of the Internet is about, even if the framework and laws allow it). One party (the accuser) buys domain names that he does not use in hopes of making money off selling them to people who actually would use them down the road. Not exactly a technology pioneer. The other guy takes advantage of the lack of technical savvy of this other parasite (an AOL user putting himself forth as a networking businessman...laughable) and steals his domain. Not justified, but definitely ironic. I say put them in a room, let them go after each other with crowbars, and then shoot whoever walks out alive. The world will be a better place.