GOVERNMENT CRACKS DOWN ON WEB SITES

Privacy Issues Surface As Justice Department Has Access To More Information.

In a tactic aimed at removing Web sites that provide illegal merchandise,
the Justice Department has recently seized Internet domain names and
redirected visitors to these sites to DOJ warnings. Privacy advocates say
the move could compromise the anonymity of visitors to these sites because
the department can log visitors' information without their knowledge.

The Justice Department took over the iSoNews.com domain, whose owner
pleaded guilty to using his site to sell "mod" chips that let Microsoft's
X-box and Sony's PlayStation owners modify their devices so that they could
use them to play illegally obtained games or tinker with the operating
systems that have software protections.

Visitors to the site received the message, "The domain and Web site were
surrendered to U.S. law enforcement pursuant to a federal prosecution and
felony plea agreement for conspiracy to violate criminal copyright laws."

Site owner David Rocci "attempted to profit by marketing circumvention
devices to (the gaming) community knowing they would be used to play
pirated games," Michael Chertoff, the assistant attorney general for the
Justice Department's criminal division, said in a statement. "He thought
that there were no risks associated with his actions. He was wrong, and
everyone engaged in the warez scene should take note."

"Rocci used his Web site as the exclusive means to advertise and market the
sale of mod chips to individuals in the online warez community," the
government said in a statement. "The iSoNews Web site was dedicated to
providing information about copyright infringement and piracy, and included
pages with news on the illegal warez scene, discussion forums on piracy,
and up-to-date listings of all of the latest pirated products that were
available. The site had over 100,000 registered users and claimed to
receive over 140,000 hits each day."

Some hackers have seized on mod chips as a vehicle to run Linux on the
X-box. Advocates argue such legitimate, nonpiracy uses of mod chips
disqualify them as "circumvention devices" under the Digital Millenium
meant to protect intellectual property, but is often cited for violating
citizen's Constitutional rights.

Earlier last week, 11 Web site operators were indicted for allegedly
selling illegal devices including bongs and holders for marijuana
cigarettes. Attorney General John Ashcroft declared that the domain names
for the Web sites allegedly set up to sell illegal "drug paraphernalia"
would be pointed to Drug Enforcement Agency servers.

In the past, Web sites would simply disappear after the computer servers
that hosted them were held in police property rooms.

This trend is alarming online civil liberties groups and scholars, who say
that the government's tactics are depriving citizens of their valuable
property -- Internet storefronts and, in some cases, their livelihood -- as
electronic commerce becomes more common.

"If you want to take down a Web site but simply confiscate the servers,
operators can always buy other servers," Michael Overly, an attorney
specializing in computer law at Foley & Lardner told CNN. "But if they take
the domain name away, then they've put the person out of business."

"The government is suddenly in a position of being able to monitor the
Web-surfing activities of unwitting individuals who believe they are going
to a Web site ... but possibly implicating themselves into some law
enforcement investigation," said David Sobel, general counsel of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center.

In announcing the indictment last week of 55 people for allegedly selling
drug paraphernalia on the Web, Ashcroft noted that several sites had been
redirected and had asked courts to redirect another "15 to 20 sites within
the next 30 days."