OK, it appears this isn't law, yet!
But here's more information on what's going on...
http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5155054.html
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.
The justification? To make it easier to track down miscreants. "The government must play a greater role in punishing those who conceal their identities online, particularly when they do so in furtherance of a serious federal criminal offense or in violation of a federally protected intellectual property right," Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said during a hearing in a copyright subcommittee last week. (The co-sponsor is Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., best known for his carefully thought-out proposal to permit copyright holders assail computers suspected of copyright infringement.)
[More at the URL above...]
