DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Internet users who knowingly submit incorrect contact information when registering Web addresses could face up to five years in jail under legislation introduced in the House of Representatives this week.

Source:
New Bill Would Criminalize False Domain Name Registrations (local mirror)

I have not used a real address or phone number on any domain registration in 5 years. And I’d hate to have to start, although a felony conviction is a pretty dramatic incentive, assuming they can find me to serve the papers.

This is a great quote: “Cybersquatters and other electronic ne’er-do-wells often submit false names and contact numbers when registering Internet addresses.” I think cybersquatters are vermin, just one rung on the evolutionary ladder above spammers (but 2 down from slime molds), so by the process of elimination that makes me an “electronic ne’er-do-well.”

I hide my contact information for exactly 1 reason: the WHOIS databases are among the first databases imported by every new spam outfit. Worse, shady domain registrars like Network Solutions/VeriSign routinely sell access to their customer lists, resulting in snail-mail-borne crap like the UTP-Online.com pro-forma invoice scam.

The bill’s authors, Howards Berman and Coble, are at least aware of the need for privacy; see Berman’s statement from last July in what appears to have been one of the initial hearings on the issue.

And yet, ten months later, the bill they’ve come up with ignores these privacy concerns and simply implements a (stiff) penalty. Here is the full text of HR 4640:

Whoever knowingly and with intent to defraud provides material and misleading false contact information to a domain name registrar, domain name registry, or other domain name registration authority in registering a domain name shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

How about a little federally mandated protection for all this personal WHOIS data? Please don’t tell me that would interfere with commerce — the excuse bureaucrats usually foist off on their victim/constituents when they pass anti-privacy legislation.

Here is contact info for Howard Berman. Here is contact info for Howard Coble. My letter to both, urging them to reconsider the issue, goes out tonight.