Warning: The Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008

[TMC]

I didn't see this posted here yet. As some people may not frequent other forums, you'll find this proposed bill frightening.

Read The Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008

and then sign this petition

[viper]

Everyone who owns a domain should sign this petition .

[GTP Dave]

Yep, this could be quite harming to the domain business....

[TMC]

I just called both of my senators to file my displeasure with this bill. Please do the same:

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

MODS: Thanks for making this a sticky BTW...

[TMC]

Originally Posted by bill status

2. [110th] S.2661 : A bill to prohibit the collection of identifying information of individuals by false, fraudulent, or deceptive means through the Internet, a practice known as "phishing", to provide the Federal Trade Commission the necessary authority to enforce such prohibition, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Snowe, Olympia J. [ME] (introduced 2/25/2008) Cosponsors (2)
Committees: Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation
Latest Major Action: 2/25/2008 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is composed of 23 Senators and led by Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who assumed their positions in January 2007.

Ted Stevens is a CO SPONSOR of the bill. So it is a cat in the bird house. Also, this dick is the one who rammed the ban on internet gambling down the throat of Americans.

Why don't we all call them tomorrow and put some phone time in. Petitions are great, but an empassioned WELL-THOUGHT-OUT call can do a lot too.

U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation

[BadWolf]

Consider this a bump. Even if you're not fighting this you need to be aware of it.

I'm moving any site on a domain that could be affected onto new domains as of.......right now. Today.

[Gord]

There's lots in this bill ..including taking a run at Whois privacy

Which as you may or may not know, will ONLY affect US based registrars.
Good thing we're in Canada .. eh

[TMC]

If anyone is a member of sitepoint, then please bump my thread there and set some of the folks there straight. It's surprising how lame some people are...

Warning: The Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008 (S. 2661) - SitePoint Forums

[TMC]

The ICA has come out with a suggested letter you can use as a US constituent to tell your Senator how you feel about this bill.

Here is the link: ADVISE YOUR SENATOR NOW: OPPOSE THE SNOWE BILL! | Internet Commerce Association

Please take the time and a mere $0.44 to mail this first class to your Senator. IT REALLY WILL HELP!

[Globofun]

I went through part of the text and still do not understand where it can affect the majority of us?

I may not understand the whole problem with all this.......

They want to go after frauders........where are we frauding anything?

I feel dumb!

[docputer]

I think that perhaps the idea is that you might possibly register a domain close to a financial domain and be branded a phisher without actually doing anything.

[thebes]

I believe that the concern is trademark holders will be able to go after domains which are only remotely similar to their trademarks, thus unjustly enriching themselves at the expense of legitimate webmasters.

If this bill actually did, and only did,what it proclaimed to do it would be great. But thats not the case. What can you expect from something co-sponsored by Mr. "Series of Tubes"?

[TMC]

No worries. This is the first bill I actually read, and read to understand. I sought others opinions and luckily came across a response by a well respected trademark and patent attorney whom I've unfortunately had to work with to defend myself.

Here are the bullet points from my perspective:

1) The federal government, specifically the FTC (remember Stern vs. Clear Channel vs. Michael Powell?) and state attorneys general will REPLACE WIPO and ICANN...replace I said...yikes

2) The TM protections will be greatly broadened to include things like generic brand names, geographical names, and other "nearbys" that the FTC will subjectively judge to be infringing. Not even the USPTO will grant applications to generic terms, yet this bill seeks to do exactly that.

3) TM claimants need only file a complaint with the FTC to have a C&D injunction issue. No proof of wrongdoing or bad faith is needed by a claimant. Chew on that for a few minutes.

4) Extrapolating the exploit of 1-3, major corps could seek out successful competing websites and just file complaint after complaint.

I'm sure that greedy f'rs will find many ways to snatch away livelihoods.

Originally Posted by Globofun

I went through part of the text and still do not understand where it can affect the majority of us?

I may not understand the whole problem with all this.......

They want to go after frauders........where are we frauding anything?

I feel dumb!

[TMC]

This thread needs a bump. I don't want to sound like chicken little crying that that sky is falling, but hey - check it out - the frickin sky is falling, folks. You'd better wake up and take some action or the livelihoods of some / many of you will be effected by bills like the Snowe Bill SB 2661 and corporate lobbyist groups like CADNA.org. Wake the F up. !apathy