Re: [privacy] Should Owners Of Web Sites Be Anonymous?

["Justin Polazzo" <jpolazzo () thesportsauthority com>]

________________________________

From: Richard M. Smith [mailto:rms () bsf-llc com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 5:45 AM
To: privacy () whitestar linuxbox org
Subject: [privacy] Should Owners Of Web Sites Be Anonymous?


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114609925357637113.html?mod=todays_us_ma
rketplace
 

 " because bloggers and other individuals who operate their own Web
sites will no longer need to fear stalkers or threats of lawsuits. "

 

My thoughts exactly, and listen to this:

 " they need the information now in Whois to combat financial fraud and
trademark violation. With only the identity of a technical person, they
say investigators won't be able to find a site's owner without filing a
lawsuit and getting a subpoena. " 

What? You have to file a lawsuit in order to sue someone? No more
strongarm tactics to get bloggers to obey any order written by a lawyer
simply because they mailed you a letter? Dang! As for the financial
fraud part, I seriously doubt anyone would include their real name in
registering a phishing site ;-)

 Bruce A. MacDonald, a trademark lawyer with Schnader Harrison Segal &
Lewis in Washington, says lack of enforcement of current Whois
regulations is "scandalous" because it lets "fictitious entities and
anonymous persons" register domain names. Removing the requirement
entirely, he says, will "result in a complete loss of the ability" for
companies to track down people misusing corporate trademarks. 

So they are not useful anyway, except for lawyers harassing legitimate
users who voluntarily register accurate information. 

He noted that last fall, the Icann names committee proposed establishing
a domain name extension -- ".xxx" -- designed for pornographic Web
sites, but the U.S. government has persuaded Icann to postpone approving
the plan.

Ok, this fact sets my paranoia alarm off. Why would the current
government put the kibosh on .xxx? If we had .xxx and made websites
hosting adult content on to that TLD, then we wouldnt have to nab
google's DB, or any of the other things the current government is doing
in the "wont somebody think of the children" crusade. Right?

-JP

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