The House approved an anti-cybersquatting bill Wednesday, barring people from inappropriate trademark use (including celebrity names) in naming Internet sites, but the Clinton Administration says it's too narrow an approach, favoring an international way of solving the problem.
"We believe," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters Thursday, "that fundamentally we'd be walking down the wrong road if we legislated a cybersquatting law and then the 200 or so Internet countries around the world started legislating their own rules and laws.
"The right way to do it is through this international process, and we're working very hard to get that done." He suggested the process should be overseen by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit tapped by the White House last year to oversee the Internet naming system.
The Senate passed a similar bill in August, but a conference committee must reconcile the two bills before they go to President Clinton, Reuters says. They're aimed at punishing those who register trademarked or celebrity names as Web domain names to draw traffic - including adult sites.
Current law allows trademark holders to generally file lawsuits to reclaim their names or to kick alleged trademark abusers off the Internet. A battle like that is now engaged over Whitehouse.com, a tussle between an adult Web site and a fruit juice company who says it's had White House as a brand trademark since the early part of the century. Large companies, in fact, complain people registering Web sites using their trademarks have often sought to sell the names back for thousands - even millions.
But Reuters says civil libertarians fear the new legislation threatens free expression online, possibly far enough to outlaw parody or protest sites.
