Go to Jail for False WHOIS Info
 

Two US lawmakers have introduced to the House of Representatives a bill that would impose criminal penalties on Internet users who "knowingly and with intent to defraud provide material and misleading false contact information to a domain name registrar?" The bill allows for fines and prison sentences up to five years for violators.

http://www.demys.net/news/02_May_24_whois.htm

:NopeNope

I started to laugh when I read "Two US lawmakers" - who gives a shit now?

Maybe use correct info, hey problem solved...

That sucks ! I saw something about that earlier in the year.

It says its against cybersquatters with thousands of domains.

I don't know if it will effect small chums like me.

I think I have like 6 or 7 domains registered... maybe less.

what do US lawmakers have to say about something global?

i hate politicians and amublance chasing activists

Thats why I was laughing.

Who are you kidding ? The US rules the world.
"Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it."

http://www.adcouncil.org/images/camp...street_usa.jpg

Welcome to the New Soviet

Indeed. What a couple of asses.

so if some1 is peddling child porn and their domain info is false and u cant get a subpoena 2 pull their host/registrar info u think thats okay?

its a good idea to require real info on a domain whois, tho maybe not phone # a valid email and mailing address should be required. u cant form a company with a fake mailing address, it is required for legal documents. why should u be able to do the same with a domain.

obviously a lot of anons on here :thumbsup

Good. People should have to use correct info. If you're not going to put your name on something, then don't do it.

I think it's a good Idea, it will help to get rid of many cheaters. If you can't give your real information, then you shouldn't be allowed to do business. Just my 2 cents.

i agree

You'll be singing a different tune if and when the US Gov't decides its time for an internet porn crackdown.

Cybersquatters & trademark infringers can be stopped in ways other than instituting criminal penalties for not registering with valid contact info. This bill is a smokescreen.

ARIN (who DOES have authority to make such orders) made such a ruling a long time back)which NetSol was to BE actively enforcing) Recently ARIN told NetSol to START checking the WhoIs and verifying emails etc. Anyone found to be faking the info was to be stripped of the domains. No jail etc of course.

NetSol was chosen to be the 'head' registrar a long time ago. For anyone arguing it should be a WorldWide thing, it basically is. Still don't like it? Start your own net. :D Like it or not, the Net started here and it will be under US influence for years to come.

They CAN and WILL do it. Anyone faking it, has some reason to hide it and that in itself makes it suspicous. You do NOT *own* the domain, only lease it. Ever try to lease a car or ANYthing for that matter with fake information? Its a great tool on spammers too. lol Spam someone and not only do they tell your sponsors and host, pop a email to Netsol so the spammer is at the top of that hitlist. ;-) Easy to check for faked info in most cases if you, yourself has been in business for any length of time. :1orglaugh

I love it up to 5 years...

do it 3 times in cali and get life... :1orglaugh


you know 5 years is the same as you get to rob 3 banks in denmark... hell I think it will only be 4 years to do the bankjobs....

makes you wonder about fucked up law ppl on acid!

Uh, right. The same stupid, anti-privacy argument has been used against making encryption software publicly avalible and placing restrictions on the FBI's use of things like Carnivore.

Obviously if you don't want your email read by the government or like having some privacy you must have something to hide! lol

Leasing a car does not require that you make your personal information avalible to the general public, nor does anything else.

Why does it suck? Are your WHOIS registrations false?

The number of times we check a URL and see it comes up N/A or completely false is too many times to mention.

And then with all this false info they want to be taking money with credit cards.:BangBang: :BangBang:

The net is about to enter the real world and not a day to soon. Get rid of the scammers, scum bags and rip off artists and there will be a lot more money to be made here.

an easy solution is to incorporate and have a corporate name on the whois - it's totally legal for a company to own a url.

I agree. It would bug me, if it weren't for this fact. You can put a corporate name, or even have someone else hold your domains for you. So no biggie.

If that weren't possible, though, I'd lie. Call me crazy, but I have a rare name, and if you can find me, you can find my girlfriend who is a model on my sites. I'd rather to five years in jail than have my partner be raped by a "fan". Anyone here who would do differently?

how is an EMAIL ADDRESS an invasion of privacy? it just has to be a working one. it can be [email protected]egistered that's not exactly an invasion of ur privacy. u can put ur company name even if you have a FBN and not a corp (fbn costs $50 and uses ur own social security #)

or u can put the name of ur domain as long as u have a valid mailing address and email address. is that 2 much 2 ask. u don't have to answer ur email, but ppl need to be able to reach u for legal purposes.

if someone stole all ur content and their domain had bogus info and u couldnt get their registrar/host 2 shut them off, what would u do?

this is what i am suggesting obviously making u put all ur personal info including telephone # is not necessary, just valid info even if u have a PO box in the hague u should still have valid info.

not an invasion of privacy just a requirement of doing business.

:thumbsup

You don;t have to incorporate, set yourself as a sole proprietership. So it'd be "Gemini" dba as Smiths Hardware or whatever.

Use the Smiths Hardware as the owner of the domain.

We offer a PO Box and the local city as well as emails for a small monthly fee. Then forward all of your emails etc. We do NOT accept the people we deal with, to give us their registrar info etc so you retain the owner name. So you have full control over your own domains. :winkwink:

Currently thinking over setting up emails for the owners of the domains so they have full access to that as well. :)

And nope, not even 800 per year let alone 800 per quarter. lol Multiple site discounts and all of that good stuff.

Bleh, just use Domain by Proxy from Godaddy...It works great, it's keeps your info private and if for legal reasons they need to get ahold of you, they can through them =)

<a href="https://registrar.godaddy.com/dbp.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from%5Fapp=&authGuid=&rhl=gdfr ont%5Flink&mscssid=998665">Check it out.</a>

I've been using it by day one and it works great =).

Actually I would say it's long overdue. I'm tired of getting spammed or finding an infringing site and then finding out that their WHOIS information is bogus. Nobody should have the right to do business with total anonymity.

Also, there's a risk to putting up that bogus info. Suppose you develop a domain into a good moneymaker, then someone hijacks it. All of a sudden, you'll wish you really owned that domain. (Without accurate info, there's no real ownership.)

"five years for violators. "

Yep the US are totally fucking tripping on ACID alright.

The US are just making so many new rules to CONTROL there people.

Most of my new domains are under totally bullshit whois, and if they ever start going after people I can easily login and change it all over to legit info.

Anyways there ARE domain name registers that are not operated out of the US you know.

Get ready, the next law might be all traveling arriving in the US get a Anal cavatiy search just in the name of national security.

Sammy

I'm so fucking sick and tired of the "if you have nothing to hide excuse"

Hey Gem, if you have nothing to hide, why not post with your real name?

Wait til some holy roller tracks you down from your WHOIS info and decides to make you their example...

me, I have nothing to hide, but last thing I really want is some dogooder in my children's school district starting trouble...

Sykk, I have gone by Gemini (which got shortened to Gem soon after) since 1980 when I first danced. lol I answer to Gem faster than I do to my given name. Few even know my given. Even my Mother called me Gem* :winkwink:

Tell me, is your every day name Sykk?? :Graucho lol

I use my corporate name and a p.o. box for my domains so I don't care, but I still think it's a stupid law. I think the whole whois thing is stupid to begin with anyway. There is absolutley no reason for someone's whois information to be public. The only people who should have access to the whois info are your registrar, ARIN, ICANN, etc. There is no reason for Joe Blow Surfer or anybody else to have access to your info. Besides, if the whois info wasn't made public, people wouldn't feel a need to fake their info to protect their privacy. If the government wants to find out who you are it's easy enough for them to get your info from your registrar.

it has to do with pubic broadcasting. i think accurate info should be in there

I think it makes it hard for smaller companies like myself to register domain names. I mean my last name is VERY uncommon, so if I put my real name on there....LOTS of freaks I can imagine look it up and would definitely try to find me. Not to mention other women in the same business I am, are very catty and would LOVE to plaster my real info all over. I use my real po box, just use my work name for registering....billing info is correct.

What an idiotic thing to say. Everybody posts here with handles, and NOT because they have "something to hide." If you view yourself as some sort of fugitive from justice or as someone who has something to hide, I pity you.

I register my domains under my real name, and other than some spam, I have NEVER been contacted by anybody except for a legitimate business purpose. Quit being such a fucking wimpy paranoid.

it's not about being a fugitive from justice.. i don't want some religious nutter putting c4 in my mailbox for recreating sodom and gomorrah online.. it's a simple enough request.. i've got valid email.. and a mobile # they can contact me.. they don't need my name..
sure it may be a little paranoid.. but i view it as an easy enough precaution to take... as much as i personally feel ok about what i do i know theres a large percentage of the population that thinks we're ALL sicko's for dealing in porn.

if im ever effected beyond that i'll just use godaddy's service.. bascially it's no-ones business who owns my domains..

I have to say, it depends what sort of sites you run, as far as being contacted from people who got your info from WHOIS. I know of a girl who used to run an amateur website and she had a REALLY scary experience with a major stalker who got her information from WHOIS. This happened 3, maybe 4 years ago.

When I started my own amateur website 4 years ago, I was fairly clueless to the business and put my home phone #, full legal name, and a PO Box in my WHOIS info. I got some extremely scary phone calls from one rather obsessed fan before I smartened up and changed the name to a business name and the # to a cell. I was just glad I never had my home address on there...I feel certain that I would have had at least one very unwelcome vistor come to my home.

Anyway, like I said, it depends on the situation. Stalkers are a very real concern to amateurs. To content providers, such as yourself, or other "behind the scenes" site owners, it obviously isn't nearly as big of a problem.

Just my :2 cents:
Cassie

The problem is the way the Internet has grown up and it's history.

It has been fairly unorganized and free, which has led to anarchy in some cases. It is also, I would imagine, mostly momma and poppa type businesses. With few of the webmasters aware of the law or unwilling to abide by them. There is still the belief that this is the Internet and therefore different.

Those days are now coming to an end. Visa/MasterCard are now aware that they are liable under the law to be penalized for the wrong doings of people they have no control over. The government have seen that there are people running businesses, taking money, displaying porno all with false info and has decided this is not acceptable.

I understand about you wishing to remain anonymous to protect your family or friends. But then you need to open business premises, corporation and register that as the address of your URL. Just because you want to run a porn business from your back bedroom is not an excuse.

You are retailers in porn, wake up to that fact.

Well if it had not happened, perhaps I would not be so paranoid, as we speak...daily I have a freak in sexchat.com plastering my cell phone number which is the one I use in my whois, all of the chat room. To my knowledge, I dont know this person.

I haVe a woman in yahoo going to great lengths to find out my real address, also gives my phone number out on a daily basis. I can only imagine what would happen IF she knew my real name and did find my real address. Too many freaks in the world for me to risk it. Putting a false name, just makes me feel a bit more secure. Has nothing to do with being wimpy, but I AM a single mother and I have to be careful.

a woman stalker,,,,,yikes

So, does your attitude extend as far that if someone hotlinks you, you don't think it's your business who owns THAT domain? Now, don't go off in any other direction. Just let's get an answer to that question: Do you still maintain it's not your business who owns that domain?