Net News

'Illegal Internet gambling is no better than an offshore mail order drug business,' said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R, TX). Govern-ment watchdogs say more than 1,600 illegal Internet casinos could bring in more than $4 billion this year.

Supporters argued that the state exemption was a practical necessity, given horse racing's heavy reliance on income generated by legal gambling coupled with the states' longstanding right to regulate gambling within their own borders.

'It would restrict the day to day wagering activities of millions of horse racing fans,' said Rep. Harold Rogers (R, KY).

Opponents say the legislation's broad language opens the door to U.S.-based Internet gambling. Most Internet gambling currently is illegal in the United States.

'A carve-out for horses and dogs and lotteries and jai-alai and Lord knows what else means that people will be able to use the Internet and use their credit cards and place bets and lose a whole lot of money,' said House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R, WI).

It is unknown when or whether the Senate will consider its version of the bill, which also has the American gambling carve-outs.

In a report last year, the General Accounting Office (GAO) called Internet gambling 'a fast-growing industry' with estimated 2003 revenues of more than $4 billion. Virtually all Internet gambling operations ' the GAO estimated that there are 1,800 ' are based outside the United States, posing a problem for enforcement.

Fearing that Chairman Sensen-brenner and his House Judiciary Committee would eliminate the state carve-out as they had done successfully with previous versions of the bill, House supporters were forced to redact a section providing for criminal and civil penalties.

Instead, supporters introduced a new bill and sped it through the Financial Services Committee and to the full House for passage. Supporters plan to place criminal penalties back into the bill once it reaches a House-Senate conference committee.

New .PRO Domain Now Accepting Registrations

A leading business-to-business domain name registrar, BulkRegister, recently announced that it is accepting defensive registrations from trademark holders during the Sunrise Period for the new .Pro domain. BulkRegister is also accepting advance pre-registrations from all qualifying professionals for the .Pro domain, whose “live launch” is planned for July 1.

The .Pro domains will initially be available only to licensed legal, medical and accounting professionals under the Law.Pro, Med.Pro and CPA.Pro domains, respectively. The new domains will be issued with a digital certificate that facilitates secure online communications and transactions. Registrants must self-certify that they meet the domain's eligibility criteria.

The Sunrise Period allows registered trademark holders to protect their brand names across current and future profession-specific domain strings, blocking cybersquatters and avoiding trademark disputes and litigation after open registration begins. The .Pro domain's unique security feature ' which guarantees digital identity, secure e-mail and secure Web-based transactions ' is tailored for professionals who have high confidentiality obligations for their online communications, such as client correspondence, patient information, or court, tax and insurance filings. The need for such security has been underlined by new legislative mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Account-ability Act), which imposes rigorous privacy and security standards for patient records. Those interested in registering can e-mail [email protected] or visit www2.bulkregister. com/promoDotPro.html.

M.A.D.D. Gets Even

In a recent dispute presented before the National Arbitration Forum addressing allegations of cybersquatting, an arbitrator in California has ruled that Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) owns the legal rights to the Internet address known as “madd.com.” The decision, which was decided under Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), resulted in the transfer of the subject domain name to the non-profit organization.

M.A.D.D., whose mission is to stop drunk driving, brought its action against Korean national Hyun-Jun Shin, who was accused of redirecting visitors of www.madd. com, a domain name that he owned, to a pornographic Web site.

Arbitrator James A. Crary ruled that M.A.D.D. had invested substantial effort and expenditures over some 20 years to make its trademark famous and was entitled to the Web site name because Shin lacked what he called “rights or legitimate interests” in it. Crary noted that Shin's continual attempts to sell the domain name for $25,000 betrayed bad faith.

“There is no evidence before the [arbitration] Panel that suggests Respondent [Shin] is commonly known by the 'MADD' identifier,” said Crary, “or that Respondent is affiliated with a legitimate business that uses the madd.com domain name as its identity.”

Copies of the decision, Mothers Against Drunk Driving v. Hyun-Jun Shin, are available from the National Arbitration Forum or online at www.arbitration forum.com.

Verizon Ordered to Identify Download Suspects

In another test of the subpoena power undergirding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia recently refused to stay a lower court order requiring Verizon Internet Services Inc. to reveal the identities of two subscribers alleged to have committed expansive online music copyright infringement.

In a one-page order, the appeals court reasoned that Verizon “has not shown so great a likelihood of success on the merits as to outweigh the clearly greater harm that would accrue to [Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)] if the stay were granted.” The ruling means the Internet Service Provider (ISP) must divulge its customers' information pending its appeal of the district court's Jan. 23 order directing it to comply with a subpoena issued under '512(h) of the DMCA. The underlying appeal is set for oral argument before the DC Circuit on September 16, 2003.

For its part, Verizon has argued that the DMCA is too broad and violates its customers' privacy.

The RIAA, which represents the music industry's largest record companies, said that it has not yet decided what it will do with the names.

RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss says the organization is still weighing its options on how to deal with alleged infringers. In some cases, the RIAA has sent individuals suspected of illegally downloading music “cease and desist” letters; but in other cases, the group has filed lawsuits.

Verizon submits that the Act does not provide safeguards for the privacy of consumers. A complainant can identify an individual by tracing his or her Internet protocol address, which is unique to each user and can be gleaned from e-mails, Web site logs or a Web surfer's entry into a chat room. Under the DMCA, a court clerk can issue a subpoena for an individual's name, without a review by a judge.

Congress has noted the Verizon suit, causing some members to consider bills that would make it tougher to force Internet service providers to turn over the identities of their customers.

The decision to pursue individuals for copyright violations demonstrates the frustration of the recording industry with copyright piracy on the Internet. It has shut down enterprises such as Napster, the company that launched the music downloading boom. At its peak, Napster had more than 50 million users. But after Napster was put out of business, peer-to-peer software spread across the Internet, making it easier for users to trade songs with each other directly.

Last month, four college students agreed to pay as much as $17,500 each to settle lawsuits brought by the RIAA for running file-sharing services on their computers.

The .Pro domains will initially be available only to licensed legal, medical and accounting professionals under the Law.Pro, Med.Pro and CPA.Pro domains, respectively. The new domains will be issued with a digital certificate that facilitates secure online communications and transactions. Registrants must self-certify that they meet the domain's eligibility criteria.

The Sunrise Period allows registered trademark holders to protect their brand names across current and future profession-specific domain strings, blocking cybersquatters and avoiding trademark disputes and litigation after open registration begins. The .Pro domain's unique security feature ' which guarantees digital identity, secure e-mail and secure Web-based transactions ' is tailored for professionals who have high confidentiality obligations for their online communications, such as client correspondence, patient information, or court, tax and insurance filings. The need for such security has been underlined by new legislative mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Account-ability Act), which imposes rigorous privacy and security standards for patient records. Those interested in registering can visit www2.bulkregister.com/promoDotPro.html.In a recent dispute presented before the National Arbitration Forum addressing allegations of cybersquatting, an arbitrator in California has ruled that Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) owns the legal rights to the Internet address known as 'madd.com.' The decision, which was decided under Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), resulted in the transfer of the subject domain name to the non-profit organization.

M.A.D.D., whose mission is to stop drunk driving, brought its action against Korean national Hyun-Jun Shin, who was accused of redirecting visitors of www.madd. com, a domain name that he owned, to a pornographic Web site.

Arbitrator James A. Crary ruled that M.A.D.D. had invested substantial effort and expenditures over some 20 years to make its trademark famous and was entitled to the Web site name because Shin lacked what he called 'rights or legitimate interests' in it. Crary noted that Shin's continual attempts to sell the domain name for $25,000 betrayed bad faith.

'There is no evidence before the [arbitration] Panel that suggests Respondent [Shin] is commonly known by the 'MADD' identifier,' said Crary, 'or that Respondent is affiliated with a legitimate business that uses the madd.com domain name as its identity.'

Copies of the decision, Mothers Against Drunk Driving v. Hyun-Jun Shin, are available from the National Arbitration Forum or online at www.arbitrationforum.com.In another test of the subpoena power undergirding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia recently refused to stay a lower court order requiring Verizon Internet Services Inc. to reveal the identities of two subscribers alleged to have committed expansive online music copyright infringement.

In a one-page order, the appeals court reasoned that Verizon 'has not shown so great a likelihood of success on the merits as to outweigh the clearly greater harm that would accrue to [Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)] if the stay were granted.' The ruling means the Internet Service Provider (ISP) must divulge its customers' information pending its appeal of the district court's Jan. 23 order directing it to comply with a subpoena issued under '512(h) of the DMCA. The underlying appeal is set for oral argument before the DC Circuit on September 16, 2003.

For its part, Verizon has argued that the DMCA is too broad and violates its customers' privacy.

The RIAA, which represents the music industry's largest record companies, said that it has not yet decided what it will do with the names.

RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss says the organization is still weighing its options on how to deal with alleged infringers. In some cases, the RIAA has sent individuals suspected of illegally downloading music 'cease and desist' letters; but in other cases, the group has filed lawsuits.

Verizon submits that the Act does not provide safeguards for the privacy of consumers. A complainant can identify an individual by tracing his or her Internet protocol address, which is unique to each user and can be gleaned from e-mails, Web site logs or a Web surfer's entry into a chat room. Under the DMCA, a court clerk can issue a subpoena for an individual's name, without a review by a judge.

Congress has noted the Verizon suit, causing some members to consider bills that would make it tougher to force Internet service providers to turn over the identities of their customers.

The decision to pursue individuals for copyright violations demonstrates the frustration of the recording industry with copyright piracy on the Internet. It has shut down enterprises such as Napster, the company that launched the music downloading boom. At its peak, Napster had more than 50 million users. But after Napster was put out of business, peer-to-peer software spread across the Internet, making it easier for users to trade songs with each other directly.

Last month, four college students agreed to pay as much as $17,500 each to settle lawsuits brought by the RIAA for running file-sharing services on their computers.

House Bans Offshore Internet Gambling

Based on the recent passage of H.R. 2143, Congress is one step closer to criminalizing offshore Internet gambling while paving the way for U.S.-based casinos to expand operations like horse racing, lotteries and dog racing on the Web.

Specifically, the House voted to prohibit gamblers from using credit cards to bet at illegal offshore Internet casinos while excepting U.S.-based casinos from the ban. The vote banning Americans from using credit cards, checks and electronic fund transfers to pay for online betting transactions passed 319-104. The vote on the state exemption passed by a slimmer margin of 237-186.

'Illegal Internet gambling is no better than an offshore mail order drug business,' said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R, TX). Govern-ment watchdogs say more than 1,600 illegal Internet casinos could bring in more than $4 billion this year.

Supporters argued that the state exemption was a practical necessity, given horse racing's heavy reliance on income generated by legal gambling coupled with the states' longstanding right to regulate gambling within their own borders.

'It would restrict the day to day wagering activities of millions of horse racing fans,' said Rep. Harold Rogers (R, KY).

Opponents say the legislation's broad language opens the door to U.S.-based Internet gambling. Most Internet gambling currently is illegal in the United States.

'A carve-out for horses and dogs and lotteries and jai-alai and Lord knows what else means that people will be able to use the Internet and use their credit cards and place bets and lose a whole lot of money,' said House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R, WI).

It is unknown when or whether the Senate will consider its version of the bill, which also has the American gambling carve-outs.

In a report last year, the General Accounting Office (GAO) called Internet gambling 'a fast-growing industry' with estimated 2003 revenues of more than $4 billion. Virtually all Internet gambling operations ' the GAO estimated that there are 1,800 ' are based outside the United States, posing a problem for enforcement.

Fearing that Chairman Sensen-brenner and his House Judiciary Committee would eliminate the state carve-out as they had done successfully with previous versions of the bill, House supporters were forced to redact a section providing for criminal and civil penalties.

Instead, supporters introduced a new bill and sped it through the Financial Services Committee and to the full House for passage. Supporters plan to place criminal penalties back into the bill once it reaches a House-Senate conference committee.

New .PRO Domain Now Accepting Registrations

A leading business-to-business domain name registrar, BulkRegister, recently announced that it is accepting defensive registrations from trademark holders during the Sunrise Period for the new .Pro domain. BulkRegister is also accepting advance pre-registrations from all qualifying professionals for the .Pro domain, whose “live launch” is planned for July 1.

The .Pro domains will initially be available only to licensed legal, medical and accounting professionals under the Law.Pro, Med.Pro and CPA.Pro domains, respectively. The new domains will be issued with a digital certificate that facilitates secure online communications and transactions. Registrants must self-certify that they meet the domain's eligibility criteria.

The Sunrise Period allows registered trademark holders to protect their brand names across current and future profession-specific domain strings, blocking cybersquatters and avoiding trademark disputes and litigation after open registration begins. The .Pro domain's unique security feature ' which guarantees digital identity, secure e-mail and secure Web-based transactions ' is tailored for professionals who have high confidentiality obligations for their online communications, such as client correspondence, patient information, or court, tax and insurance filings. The need for such security has been underlined by new legislative mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Account-ability Act), which imposes rigorous privacy and security standards for patient records. Those interested in registering can e-mail [email protected] or visit www2.bulkregister. com/promoDotPro.html.

M.A.D.D. Gets Even

In a recent dispute presented before the National Arbitration Forum addressing allegations of cybersquatting, an arbitrator in California has ruled that Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) owns the legal rights to the Internet address known as “madd.com.” The decision, which was decided under Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), resulted in the transfer of the subject domain name to the non-profit organization.

M.A.D.D., whose mission is to stop drunk driving, brought its action against Korean national Hyun-Jun Shin, who was accused of redirecting visitors of www.madd. com, a domain name that he owned, to a pornographic Web site.

Arbitrator James A. Crary ruled that M.A.D.D. had invested substantial effort and expenditures over some 20 years to make its trademark famous and was entitled to the Web site name because Shin lacked what he called “rights or legitimate interests” in it. Crary noted that Shin's continual attempts to sell the domain name for $25,000 betrayed bad faith.

“There is no evidence before the [arbitration] Panel that suggests Respondent [Shin] is commonly known by the 'MADD' identifier,” said Crary, “or that Respondent is affiliated with a legitimate business that uses the madd.com domain name as its identity.”

Copies of the decision, Mothers Against Drunk Driving v. Hyun-Jun Shin, are available from the National Arbitration Forum or online at www.arbitration forum.com.

Verizon Ordered to Identify Download Suspects

In another test of the subpoena power undergirding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia recently refused to stay a lower court order requiring Verizon Internet Services Inc. to reveal the identities of two subscribers alleged to have committed expansive online music copyright infringement.

In a one-page order, the appeals court reasoned that Verizon “has not shown so great a likelihood of success on the merits as to outweigh the clearly greater harm that would accrue to [Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)] if the stay were granted.” The ruling means the Internet Service Provider (ISP) must divulge its customers' information pending its appeal of the district court's Jan. 23 order directing it to comply with a subpoena issued under '512(h) of the DMCA. The underlying appeal is set for oral argument before the DC Circuit on September 16, 2003.

For its part, Verizon has argued that the DMCA is too broad and violates its customers' privacy.

The RIAA, which represents the music industry's largest record companies, said that it has not yet decided what it will do with the names.

RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss says the organization is still weighing its options on how to deal with alleged infringers. In some cases, the RIAA has sent individuals suspected of illegally downloading music “cease and desist” letters; but in other cases, the group has filed lawsuits.

Verizon submits that the Act does not provide safeguards for the privacy of consumers. A complainant can identify an individual by tracing his or her Internet protocol address, which is unique to each user and can be gleaned from e-mails, Web site logs or a Web surfer's entry into a chat room. Under the DMCA, a court clerk can issue a subpoena for an individual's name, without a review by a judge.

Congress has noted the Verizon suit, causing some members to consider bills that would make it tougher to force Internet service providers to turn over the identities of their customers.

The decision to pursue individuals for copyright violations demonstrates the frustration of the recording industry with copyright piracy on the Internet. It has shut down enterprises such as Napster, the company that launched the music downloading boom. At its peak, Napster had more than 50 million users. But after Napster was put out of business, peer-to-peer software spread across the Internet, making it easier for users to trade songs with each other directly.

Last month, four college students agreed to pay as much as $17,500 each to settle lawsuits brought by the RIAA for running file-sharing services on their computers.

The .Pro domains will initially be available only to licensed legal, medical and accounting professionals under the Law.Pro, Med.Pro and CPA.Pro domains, respectively. The new domains will be issued with a digital certificate that facilitates secure online communications and transactions. Registrants must self-certify that they meet the domain's eligibility criteria.

The Sunrise Period allows registered trademark holders to protect their brand names across current and future profession-specific domain strings, blocking cybersquatters and avoiding trademark disputes and litigation after open registration begins. The .Pro domain's unique security feature ' which guarantees digital identity, secure e-mail and secure Web-based transactions ' is tailored for professionals who have high confidentiality obligations for their online communications, such as client correspondence, patient information, or court, tax and insurance filings. The need for such security has been underlined by new legislative mandates such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Account-ability Act), which imposes rigorous privacy and security standards for patient records. Those interested in registering can visit www2.bulkregister.com/promoDotPro.html.In a recent dispute presented before the National Arbitration Forum addressing allegations of cybersquatting, an arbitrator in California has ruled that Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) owns the legal rights to the Internet address known as 'madd.com.' The decision, which was decided under Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), resulted in the transfer of the subject domain name to the non-profit organization.

M.A.D.D., whose mission is to stop drunk driving, brought its action against Korean national Hyun-Jun Shin, who was accused of redirecting visitors of www.madd. com, a domain name that he owned, to a pornographic Web site.

Arbitrator James A. Crary ruled that M.A.D.D. had invested substantial effort and expenditures over some 20 years to make its trademark famous and was entitled to the Web site name because Shin lacked what he called 'rights or legitimate interests' in it. Crary noted that Shin's continual attempts to sell the domain name for $25,000 betrayed bad faith.

'There is no evidence before the [arbitration] Panel that suggests Respondent [Shin] is commonly known by the 'MADD' identifier,' said Crary, 'or that Respondent is affiliated with a legitimate business that uses the madd.com domain name as its identity.'

Copies of the decision, Mothers Against Drunk Driving v. Hyun-Jun Shin, are available from the National Arbitration Forum or online at www.arbitrationforum.com.In another test of the subpoena power undergirding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia recently refused to stay a lower court order requiring Verizon Internet Services Inc. to reveal the identities of two subscribers alleged to have committed expansive online music copyright infringement.

In a one-page order, the appeals court reasoned that Verizon 'has not shown so great a likelihood of success on the merits as to outweigh the clearly greater harm that would accrue to [Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)] if the stay were granted.' The ruling means the Internet Service Provider (ISP) must divulge its customers' information pending its appeal of the district court's Jan. 23 order directing it to comply with a subpoena issued under '512(h) of the DMCA. The underlying appeal is set for oral argument before the DC Circuit on September 16, 2003.

For its part, Verizon has argued that the DMCA is too broad and violates its customers' privacy.

The RIAA, which represents the music industry's largest record companies, said that it has not yet decided what it will do with the names.

RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss says the organization is still weighing its options on how to deal with alleged infringers. In some cases, the RIAA has sent individuals suspected of illegally downloading music 'cease and desist' letters; but in other cases, the group has filed lawsuits.

Verizon submits that the Act does not provide safeguards for the privacy of consumers. A complainant can identify an individual by tracing his or her Internet protocol address, which is unique to each user and can be gleaned from e-mails, Web site logs or a Web surfer's entry into a chat room. Under the DMCA, a court clerk can issue a subpoena for an individual's name, without a review by a judge.

Congress has noted the Verizon suit, causing some members to consider bills that would make it tougher to force Internet service providers to turn over the identities of their customers.

The decision to pursue individuals for copyright violations demonstrates the frustration of the recording industry with copyright piracy on the Internet. It has shut down enterprises such as Napster, the company that launched the music downloading boom. At its peak, Napster had more than 50 million users. But after Napster was put out of business, peer-to-peer software spread across the Internet, making it easier for users to trade songs with each other directly.

Last month, four college students agreed to pay as much as $17,500 each to settle lawsuits brought by the RIAA for running file-sharing services on their computers.