Forfeiture laws are great for the government:� none of that messy court and lawyers stuff.� Just accuse someone of a crime and take their stuff.� There's more about forfeiture elsewhere on this website.� Now there's something�new being appropriated:� domain names.� In two separate cases last week, the Justice Department seized domains for web sites that it claimed were engaging in illegal activity.
In one of those cases, the sites were�allegedly used to sell drug paraphernalia such as bongs and roach clips.� Visitors are now greeted with a message from the government.� So what's the big deal?� The Justice Department's privacy policy allows it to hand over information it collects from people visiting seized web sites to "appropriate law enforcement officials" for criminal prosecution.�
It's legal to read any web site (with the possible exception of one with child porn), but in our new security-conscious climate it's easy to imagine the Justice Department assuming the worst about an innocent visitor and not be terribly sensitive to their First Amendment rights.� There are clear notices on the sites that the government seized last week.� But you won't see them if you send an e-mail, and any that is sent to the postmasters and Webmasters of those sites is now read by the Justice Department.
Read more at the ZDNet article: Police Powers Move Into Your Browser.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2003 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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