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To: Eric Wells who wrote (72444)	8/6/1999 6:58:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

FOCUS: Senate bill to outlaw "cybersquatting" (adds Clinton opposition, para. 10-11) By Aaron Pressman WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - People who register Internet sites in the names of famous companies, with plans to sell the names back to the firms for big money, may end up paying big fines instead under legislation passed by the Senate late on Thursday. The bill outlaws so-called cybersquatting by imposing fines of up to $100,000 per Internet name on a person who registers a name "in bad faith" by hoping to profit from the association with a trademark owned by someone else. That would cover people who registered a trademark name hoping to sell it to the trademark owner, as well as sites that use trademarks, or words similar to trademarks, to draw traffic to their own sites. For example, purveyors of pornography registered dosney.com, similar to Walt Disney Co.'s <DIS.N> own Web site, and a seller of phone calling cards not affiliated with AT&T Corp. <T.N> registered attphonecard.com. But the legislation was substantially changed from a proposal originally introduced in June by Michigan Republican Spence Abraham. Legal experts had warned that the earlier bill was far too broad and could have led to criminal prosecutions of people who used trademark names in files posted on the Internet, e-mail addresses, or hyperlinks leading from one Web site to another. The earlier bill also outlawed people who put up protest or parody sites using trademark names, like www.PepsiBloodbath.com, a site urging Pepsi to stop posting advertising in Mexican sports arenas during bull fights. Under the version passed by the Senate on Thursday, written by Vermont Democrat Pat Leahy and Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, fines would be imposed only on the use of domain names for the purpose of profiting from the value of a another's trademark. "It is important that we distinguish between the legitimate and illegitimate use of domain names," Leahy said in a statement on the bill. "Bad-faith intent to profit is required for a violation to occur." For the bill to become law, the House would have to adopt similar legislation. The Clinton administration expressed its opposition to the Abraham version of the bill, but a White House official said the administration remained opposed to the Leahy-Hatch version as well. "Absent any showing that the legitimate interests of trademark holders are not being protected, it would be better to allow courts to continue to develop a body of case law in this area," the administration said in an official policy statement sent to lawmakers on Thursday before the vote. REUTERS Rtr 17:46 08-06-99