First Charges Filed under New Internet Porn Law

“Few of us could imagine there was someone out there in cyberspace, essentially reaching out by hand to take children to the seediest corners of the Internet,” he said.

Arrested in a Hollywood, FL, hotel room, Zuccarini was charged with one count of 18 U.S.C. '2252B, which was passed in April as an amendment to the Truth in Domain Names statute.

Subsection [a] of the new law makes it a crime to knowingly use a “misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a person into viewing material constituting obscenity.” It calls for a prison sentence of up to 2 years.

Zuccarini was charged under subsection [b] of the new law, which makes it a crime to use “a misleading domain name on the Internet to deceive a minor into viewing material that is harmful to minors on the Internet.” It carries a prison sentence of up to 4 years.

In the complaint filed under the Amber Alert legislation, Robert Fraterrigo, an inspector with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, alleged that Zuccarini registered more than 3000 misleading domain names.

Fraterrigo says a number of Web site operators have brought actions against Zuccarini, and that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) informed him that arbitration panels had found against him in at least 98 of more than 100 proceedings.

The same has held true in court actions filed to stop Zuccarini from using misleading domain names.

According to Fraterrigo, Zuccarini essentially admitted, in a deposition for a case brought in 2000, that he intentionally used misspelled domain names and was paid between 10 cents and 25 cents for every time a visitor to one of his Web sites accessed a site he was promoting. Shields v. Zuccarini, 2000-CV-00494. He also admitted, the agent says, to fixing his sites so that a visitor would be confronted with numerous pop-up screens and could not exit unless they knew a “specific technique” for doing so.

The FTC obtained a temporary restraining order against Zuccarini in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2001 that enjoined him from redirecting and obstructing customers on the Web and ordered him to dismantle several Web sites.

In all, the agent says, the FTC claims Zuccarini had lost 53 state and federal lawsuits and has been stripped of approximately 200 Web sites.

Fraterrigo says he used a computer in the Southern District to access 41 of the Zuccarini-controlled Web sites over 2 days in May. Sites which advertised a connection to “Bob The Builder,” Britney Spears and others, landed him on sites such as “HANKY-PANKY-COLLEGE.com.”

Comey's office says Zuccarini made as much as $1 million a year from the scheme.

“We cannot imagine a better way for this law to be used for the first time,” he says.

The first prosecution under a new law designed to prevent the use of misleading Internet addresses to lure children to pornographic sites was announced this month by U.S. Attorney James B. Comey.

John Zuccarini, 53, was charged with violating a provision of the new Amber Alert legislation because he allegedly used Web addresses that switched or omitted letters of popular teen or children's sites such as DisneyLand or Teletubbies in order to steer unsuspecting youths to porn sites. The sites are designed to be technically difficult to exit as well, prosecutors said.

At a recent news conference, Comey said Zuccarini had created a “cybermaze” designed to prey on children.

“Few of us could imagine there was someone out there in cyberspace, essentially reaching out by hand to take children to the seediest corners of the Internet,” he said.

Arrested in a Hollywood, FL, hotel room, Zuccarini was charged with one count of 18 U.S.C. '2252B, which was passed in April as an amendment to the Truth in Domain Names statute.

Subsection [a] of the new law makes it a crime to knowingly use a “misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a person into viewing material constituting obscenity.” It calls for a prison sentence of up to 2 years.

Zuccarini was charged under subsection [b] of the new law, which makes it a crime to use “a misleading domain name on the Internet to deceive a minor into viewing material that is harmful to minors on the Internet.” It carries a prison sentence of up to 4 years.

In the complaint filed under the Amber Alert legislation, Robert Fraterrigo, an inspector with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, alleged that Zuccarini registered more than 3000 misleading domain names.

Fraterrigo says a number of Web site operators have brought actions against Zuccarini, and that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) informed him that arbitration panels had found against him in at least 98 of more than 100 proceedings.

The same has held true in court actions filed to stop Zuccarini from using misleading domain names.

According to Fraterrigo, Zuccarini essentially admitted, in a deposition for a case brought in 2000, that he intentionally used misspelled domain names and was paid between 10 cents and 25 cents for every time a visitor to one of his Web sites accessed a site he was promoting. Shields v. Zuccarini, 2000-CV-00494. He also admitted, the agent says, to fixing his sites so that a visitor would be confronted with numerous pop-up screens and could not exit unless they knew a “specific technique” for doing so.

The FTC obtained a temporary restraining order against Zuccarini in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2001 that enjoined him from redirecting and obstructing customers on the Web and ordered him to dismantle several Web sites.

In all, the agent says, the FTC claims Zuccarini had lost 53 state and federal lawsuits and has been stripped of approximately 200 Web sites.

Fraterrigo says he used a computer in the Southern District to access 41 of the Zuccarini-controlled Web sites over 2 days in May. Sites which advertised a connection to “Bob The Builder,” Britney Spears and others, landed him on sites such as “HANKY-PANKY-COLLEGE.com.”

Comey's office says Zuccarini made as much as $1 million a year from the scheme.

“We cannot imagine a better way for this law to be used for the first time,” he says.