How would you like to do two to four in the calaboose and pay a fine for using benign domain names to shanghai surfers - especially young surfers - to porn sites? If an amendment set for a March 27 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law, that's what you'll get for doing it.
The amendment was attached to an unrelated child-abduction bill. "A domain name that includes a word or words to indicate the sexual content of the site...is not misleading," the amendment's language says. And the amendment would include domains listed outside the United States. CNET.com says the amendment is expected to pass the full House easily.
A second amendment attached to the same bill would bring back Congress's bid to outlaw "virtual" child porn - images that look like children performing sexually but that didn't use actual children in their making. The Supreme Court struck down their first try on First Amendment grounds.
The domain name amendment was introduced by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana), who has tried twice before to get similar legislation through Congress. The bill to which it was attached ran into some opposition when its author, House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) tried to broaden it to include sex tourism, wiretapping, and criminal penalties.
