A bill to stop cybersquatters from registering company trademarks as domain names and selling them later for profit has passed the House, as an amendment to the omnibus budget bill, which passed the House Thursday.
It would make cybersquatters prone to penalties up to $100,000 for registering a domain name similar to a known or registered corporate trademark. Civil libertarians have objected to the bill on free speech grounds, CNET says, although business interests have supported the bill.
The White House is said to be unlikely to try blocking this bill, even though it opposed a similar stand-alone bill late last month. For one thing, this bill was tacked onto a budget bill which covers at least thirteen of the government's annual spending bills and was the recent subject of very high-stakes bargaining between the Clinton Administration and Capitol Hill.
The issue in the cybersquat bill, Net analyst William Whyman of Legg Mason Precursor Group tells CNET, is a battle between individual and business interests. "The introduction of new domains, which is critically important, can't be done until these intellectual property right issues are settled."
Civil libertarians, though, fear the bill would potentially outlaw parody and/or protest sites.
The Senate was expected to hear and possibly vote on the bill Friday.
