US federal agents routinely seize property used in crimes, from drug dealer's cars to hackers' compu-ters. But the government has begun nabbing Internet domain names -- a tactic civil libertarians say threatens online merchants and could enable the feds to spy on unwitting Web surfers.
In one case, the government took over Web sites that it said peddled marijuana paraphernalia. In another, prosecutors acquired a site whose owner was charged with selling chips that let video-game systems run pirated games.
But rather than shutting them down like in the past, the sites remained alive -- and now greet visitors with stern warnings from government agencies.
The trend is alarming online civil liberties groups and legal scholars, who say that as electronic commerce becomes more common, the tactic could destroy people's livelihoods. While businesses can physically relocate in the material world, in cyberspace they depend on their domain name, the Web's equivalent of the front door of a bricks-and-mortar venture.
"If you want to take down a Web site but simply confiscate the servers, operators can always buy other servers," said Michael Overly, an attorney specializing in computer law at Foley & Lardner.
"But if they take the domain name away, then they've put the person out of business," he said.
Critics of the Justice Department's raids in recent weeks also say they fear the government could use the new method to spy on Web surfers who visit confiscated sites.
"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.
Visitors to pipesforyou.com, for instance, are greeted with a message informing them that a Penn-sylvania federal court has "restrained" the sites at the request of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
"You can spin this out to future situations where there are a lot of classes of individuals the government might like to have a list of," such as visitors to terrorism- or biological weapons-related sites, Sobel said.
The Justice Department did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment on what it plans to do with the sites and their visitor logs.
In announcing the indictment last week of 55 people for allegedly selling drug paraphernalia on the Internet, Attorney General John Ashcroft said several sites had been redirected to DEA servers and that prosecutors had asked the court to redirect another "15 to 20 sites within the next 30 days."
Among legal issues that remain unresolved is whether a domain name constitutes property, or a contract the owner has with the company that provided it. If it's the former, a domain name could indeed be seized like a car, house or computer.
Domain transfers have in the past occurred as a result of criminal or civil cases, but Overly said the courts would ultimately decide the issue.
"The government has done many things over the years," he said, "that ultimately turn out not to be legal."
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)