I wish I'd paid more attention in government class. If I had, I might have an easier time navigating the Library of Congress site in order to find Senate and House resolutions and amendments. But I went to high school in the American seventies and if you’ve ever seen the movie Slackers, it’s all true.

What I do know is this. Federal laws happen because either a Senator or a Congressman ­or sometimes a collection of both- introduces a bill before their respective house. That house either votes to reject it or if approved, send it to the other house. The second house then votes on it and if it’s passed, the bill is then sent to the President. If the President vetoes the bill, it either dies or is reworked and has to go though the approval process all over again. If the President signs the bill, the bill (or amendment) becomes law.

"Actually, laws aren't bad. What's bad is the way some laws can be interpreted or enforced."

This is our wonderful system of checks and balances. One house or one man can’t enact federal law without the approval of all three government branches, Executive, Congress and Senate. Even with this system of stopgaps, bad laws are passed. Actually, laws aren’t bad. What’s bad is the way some laws can be interpreted or enforced. What seems like a good law isn’t so good after it’s used to abuse the system.

The Patriot Act sounds like a good law in theory because it’s supposed to protect our citizenry from terrorism. What’s bad is that the Patriot Act gives law enforcement some rather disturbing power to conduct surveillance on private citizens without subpoena or court order. The Patriot Act is a scary document for anyone who supports civil liberties and if you can navigate the Library of Congress website, I suggest you read it.

Sometimes a law is amended or additional provisions are added to it. This is what happened this last week. Both the Senate and Congress passed an existing bill that was intended to set up a nation-wide alert system for abducted children. The bill now goes to the President’s desk and if he signs it, it becomes law.

The Amber Alert Bill is a great idea. The Bill itself is a subsection of the even more noble Child Abduction Prevention Act. Kids have been legally short-changed for quite a while. Up until recently, the murder of a child resulted in a lesser penalty than the murder of an adult in America. In some states, child murder wasn’t even considered a capitol crime.

It’s about time we reconfigured our laws as they apply to the safety and civil rights of our children. The Child Abduction Prevention Act and the Amber Alert Bill are both pieces of legislation that are long overdue.

The thing is, a couple of provision/amendments got added to the Amber Alert Bill that don’t really have much to do with child abduction. These two alterations to the Bill are Internet-related and affect our industry directly.

The Truth in Domain Names Act and SEC. 502. Improvements to Prohibition on Virtual Child Pornography were both added to the Amber Alert Bill. Because the Amber Alert Bill was approved, both the Senate and Congress too have passed them. The next step is the President’s desk.

The Truth in Domain Names Act would make illegal:

“…(a) Whoever knowingly uses a misleading domain name with the intent to deceive a person into viewing obscenity on the Internet shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.

(b) Whoever knowingly uses a misleading domain name with the intent to deceive a minor into viewing material that is harmful to minors on the Internet shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 4 years, or both.

And

(1) taken as a whole and with respect to minors, appeals to a prurient interest in nudity, sex, or excretion;

(2) depicts, describes, or represents, in a patently offensive way with respect to what is suitable for minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts, or a lewd exhibition of the genitals; and

(3) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value as to minors.”

On the surface this sounds like a good thing. It’s wrong to buy a domain with the name of a popular kid’s toy or cartoon character and redirect it to a porn site. It’s wrong to build a kid-centric page in order to lure them into viewing abusive materials. Hell, the whole concept of children as consumers is pretty fucked up if you ask me. It only makes it worse when the world has a whole new tool -like the net- that can be used to abuse and victimize.

** Click Here For: Almost a Law! - Part #2