[wg-b] Domain name case; cyberpiracy bill update

[Attyross@aol.com]

Mark already alerted the group to the Lockheed case this
morning.  I'd like to add a little more info, and also mention
another article on the proposed cybersquatting bill.

Otho Ross

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"Lockheed Suit Over Domain Names Crashes
By Brenda Sandburg 
The Recorder/Cal Law 
October 26, 1999 
http://www.lawnewsnetwork.com/stories/A8270-1999Oct25.html

The nation's leading domain name registrar is off the hook for trademark 
infringements by cybersquatters and others who use its services, the Ninth 
Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Monday.  Network Solutions Inc. ... is
not liable for contributory infringement when it registers a domain name.
The case, Lockheed Martin Corp. v. Network Solutions Inc., 99 C.D.O.S. 
8534, has been widely watched ....  Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Trott
said NSI is only vulnerable if it intentionally induces a third party to 
infringe
a mark or supplies a product to a third party with "actual or constructive
knowledge that the product is being used to infringe the service mark." ....
Trott wrote that NSI's role in registering Internet domain names "differs 
little from that of the United States Postal Service ...."

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"Civil Libertarians Seek to Halt Cybersquatting Bill 
October 26, 1999
By JERI CLAUSING 
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/cyber/capital/26capital.html     
      
WASHINGTON -- Civil liberties groups are trying to get Congress to put 
the brakes on legislation that would outlaw cybersquatting, the practice
of registering famous names as Internet addresses in the hope of selling
them at a profit. The groups say the legislation would trample free speech
and upset a carefully crafted international policy that is being carried out
by the Internet's new oversight body...."