I use godaddy.com as my registrar. just minutes ago I received this email:
Today I have the unfortunate responsibility of informing you that there has been
a decision made by bureaucrats of a Federal agency that takes away your right to
privacy as guaranteed by the United States Constitution.
This decision was unilaterally made by the National Telecommunications and
Information Association ("NTIA") -- http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ ...
The effect of this decision is to disallow new private domain name registrations
on .US domain names. In addition, if you already own a private .US domain name
registration, you will be forced to forfeit your privacy no later than January
26, 2006...
This comes after an anarchist website was forced to give up the IP addresses of some of it's posters, and the FEC is looking into restriction of political blogs.
Guess what, people - they're finally attacking the real enemy: the Internets.
The website to petition against this is at http://www.TheDangerOfNoPrivacy.com
More below the fold.
As Bob Parsons, head of Godaddy.com, quite eloquently continues:
I personally find it ironic that our right to .US privacy was stripped away,
without due process, by a federal government agency -- an agency that should be
looking out for our individual rights. For the NTIA to choose the .US extension
is the ultimate slap in your face. .US is the only domain name that is
specifically intended for Americans (and also those who have a physical presence
in our great country). So think about this for a moment. These bureaucrats
stripped away the privacy that you're entitled to as an American, on the only
domain name that says that you are an American. I am outraged by this -- you
should be also.
Yep, that about covers it.
Time to strike back. Letters to congresspeople all over the place, to follow.