Richmond police offer arrested after registering/forwarding domains of police chief

[RazorNF]

Richmond police officer suspended as investigation into websites continues

A Richmond police officer who once worked as a school resource officer at Chariho High School has been arrested by the Rhode Island State Police on charges of setting up a system whereby people who tried to find the town

 

[lennco]

Some kind of Error is going here, cant post long messages

 

[mikelreal]

lol was lost too

 

[RazorNF]

Yeah wierd, my whole post didn't show. Anyways the article is at http://www.providencejournal.com/br...-as-investigation-into-websites-continues.ece

 

[TestCase]

Nonetheless, Catlow said, the investigation showed that the domain names elwoodjohnson.com, elwoodjohnsonjr.com and ma-excavation.com all had been purchased by Gravier, the first two from GoDaddy.com, and that using misleading domain names was a federal crime.

OK, maybe I haven't been paying very close attention to legal issues the last few months, but what is this "misleading dn = violation of federal law" thing all about? Or is someone just grasping at straws here?

 

[-NC-]

The charge, of using misleading domain names on the Internet, carries a federal penalty of up to two years in prison

Seems only if it involves material without artistic merit designed to cause sexual thoughts or anything the "think of the children" brigade don't like.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2252B

 

[TestCase]

Hmmmm... OK, this is a bit scary on a number of levels!!

[rhetorical_question]
Now the next question is, just who get's to decide what is appropriate topic/content for a given dn????
[/ rhetorical_question]

Sounds like something that might end up in front of the Supreme Court someday.

Thanks for the info -NC-!