From Ars Technica: A Silicon Valley Democrat Representative looking for GOP help:
At 9:30pm PST on February 11, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized the domain mooo.com. They ordered the domain name’s registrar to redirect all traffic headed for mooo.com to a government IP address, one which displayed a single stark warning that the domain name had been seized for involvement with child pornography.
But the mooo.com domain name was shared between 84,000 sites; every one suddenly displayed the child pornography warning. The mistake was soon corrected, but the free domain name provider running mooo.com warned users that removal of the banner from their sites might “take as long as 3 days.”…
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who holds a law degree, is furious about the mistake. At a recent Congressional hearing, Lofgren grilled IP Czar Victoria Espinel about the incident and stood up for the 84,000 affected sites. “If I were them, I’d sue the department,” she thundered.
The article goes on to indicate that Rep. Lofgren is looking for GOP support to block a disappointing Democratic leadership-endorsed bill that would run roughshod over due process when it comes to internet seizures. If the GOP actually cared about due process for people without deep corporate pockets, Rep. Lofgren might have a chance. Her best hope is that the GOP blocks this simply because they hate Dems.
More importantly, this is just yet one more reminder that, as a society, we haven’t yet figured out how previously cherished ideals of due process, free speech, privacy, etc. apply to the rapidly evolving technological thicket of the internet.
The Finch and Pea 