] Part of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush
] Administration's war on terror, was ruled
] unconstitutional by a federal judge on Wednesday.
]
] U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo ruled in favor of the
] American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the
] power the FBI has to demand confidential financial
] records from companies as part of terrorism
] investigations.

ABCNEWS.com : Judge Rules Against Patriot Act Provision

] Results 1 - 10 of about 421 for "Fraudulent Online
] Identity Sanctions Act" privacy.

"Largely uncontroversial." I've got 421 articles that say otherwise.

Google Search: 'Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act' privacy

From the Congressional Record on September 21st, 2004 around 15:00:

Congressman Sensenbrenner (R Wisconsin)
"Because of the short time remaining in this session, H.R. 3632 also incorporates the text of three other noncontroversial bills, H.R. 3754, H.R. 112, and H.R. 4646, in the manager's amendment."

Congresswoman Christensen (D Virgin Islands)
"Title II of the bill before us contains the provisions of H.R. 3754, a largely uncontroversial bill reported out by the Committee on the Judiciary on a voice vote in June of this year. Title II is designed to improve the accuracy and completeness of the Whois database by providing additional civil and criminal remedies for domain name fraud."

Fucking lieing scum. Google "Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act" (HR 3754) and look for yourself at how "largely uncontroversial" it is.

FOIST turns innocent IP infringement into "willful infringement" if its done with a domain name with inaccurate contact information. What can we expect if this becomes law?

] * Under current law, the author of an anonymous web
] log who innocently quotes a portion of a news article
] that a judge later decides to be too long to qualify for
] "fair use" protection would be considered an "innocent
] infringer" and subject to reduced statutory damages.
] Under H.R. 3754, the same "blogger" would face damages up
] to $150,000 and potential criminal liability.
]
]
] These changes would chill speech online.

(HR 3754 was attached to HR 3632 as an amendment. The amended bill passed the house on the 21st.)

EFF on FOIST

Your House of Represtatives passed this:

] If a defendant who is convicted of a felony offense
] (other than offense of which an element is the false
] registration of a domain name) knowingly falsely
] registered a domain name and knowingly used that domain
] name in the course of that offense, the maximum
] imprisonment otherwise provided by law for that offense
] shall be doubled or increased by 7 years, whichever is
] less.

Doubled. How many aggravating factors in sentencing DOUBLE the sentence? This seems extremely overzealous. But that's not what really pisses me off. What really pisses me off is this section:

] (a) Free Speech and Press- Nothing in this title
] shall enlarge or diminish any rights of free speech or of
] the press for activities related to the registration or
] use of domain names.

What the hell does this mean? I've never seen a section like this in any law I've ever read.

Are they trying to say that this law doesn't supercede the first amendment? They're damn right it doesn't! The U.S. House does not have the authority to pass bills by majority vote that supercede the first amendment!

So what does this mean? The fact that you say that "nothing in this title shall... diminish any rights of free speech" doesn't make it so! This bill is an attempt to scare people into publicly registering their official name, address, and phone number when they engage in SPEECH activity on the internet! The only way to avoid first amendment implications is to not pass this into law!

Are they thinking that this line will shield this law from being declared unconstitutional?! You can't just undo the constitution and claim its alright because you say that's not what you're doing!!!

The fact is that this bill was written in bad faith, advocated in bad faith, and passed in bad faith. These people know full well that this requirement is not necessary, not useful, and has significant implications for the first amendment, and they've included this wording in hopes of weasling out of the consequences of that.

They've sold out one of the most basic fundamental rights protected in our system of government in exchange for 10-20 thousand dollar campaign donations from media industries who find that buying Congress Persons is cheaper then the cost of filing subpoenas when they prosecute someone.

Disgusting.

(BTW, Marsha Blackburn co-sponsored this piece of crap. Update: Actually, FOIST was attached to the original bill as an amendment prior to passage. Blackburn cosponsored the original bill, but not the amendment. That honor goes to Lamar Smith and the abominable Howard Berman who wants to make it legal for the RIAA to hack into your computer.)

(ABTW, This section of this bill is called TITLE II FRAUDULENT ONLINE IDENTITY SANCTIONS. Or the Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Title. From now all I'll be referring to this thing as FOIST.)

Infuriating - H.R. 3632 Intellectual Property Protection and Courts Amendments Act of 2004

] At one major airport, for example, the check-in agent
] writes a large red "S" on your boarding pass if you're
] designated for this search; you don't have to be a rocket
] scientist to know what this means. So only clueless bad
] guys will be searched, and groups of bad guys will be
] able to transfer any contraband into the bags of group
] members who won't be searched, with plenty of time after
] the security checkpoint to redistribute it as desired.

In case it never occurred to you...

ATAC: Abusable Technologies Awareness Center: Security Theater

This article details one particularly instructive case from the Vietnam era.

The Man in the Snow White Cell

The strength of a nation is not characterized by what it holds dear in times of peace, but what it holds dear in times of war. Unfortunately, this administration has been all too willing to bend the rules and reinterpret the law.

Wrongly Held: It Can Happen Here

Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer in Oregon, was held for two weeks, even though the only other connections between him and terrorism were things like the fact, as the FBI pointed out, that his law firm advertised in a "Muslim yellow page directory" whose publisher had once had a business relationship with Osama bin Laden's former personal secretary.

So is this what you call a Non-Obvious Relationship?

This nation was organized under a rule of law, not a dictatorship of the virtuous. The founding fathers wrote the Bill of Rights specifically because they did not believe that honorable men always do the right thing.

About Independence

] A police officer stops you on the street, then taps
] something into a device in the palm of his hand.
]
] The next minute, he knows who your relatives are, who
] lives in your house, who your neighbors are, the kind of
] car you drive or boat you own, whether you've been sued
] and various other tidbits about your life.

"Sir, what is your name?"

CNN.com - Cop on the beat now a walking database - Jul 1, 2004