Texas congressman Lamar Smith has proposed a new law which will mean if anyone provides false information when registering a domain name can get up to 7 years in prision.

The law is proposed to increase the accuracy of the whois and stop domain fraud.

What do you think about this?

I think its a bit harsh to get up to 7 years for false domain info, no matter how bad it is.
I wonder what kind of thing 7 years would be given out for...It would have to be very serious anyway

7 Years?! MAN That's horrible, I don't put my address in whois, but I do provide a phone number for contact.

Maybe a $50 fine and a warning. If you don't correct it after two warnings it's taken away from you. But not 7 years. That's to much.

WOW - I guess once you register a domain, your right to privacy no longer exists...

You are able to get private registrations which cost around another $9 yearly and that will hide your details.
Thats legal and the only way I know of not giving out your details.
I think people should be allowed more privacy than giving out such personal information which is available to ANYONE on the internet

It only applies when a domain which has been used for unlawful use is found to have false whois information.

If you have a genuine domain doing nothing wrong, and the whois is incorrect then this does not affect you.

Ah well that's alright then. People who have illegal content on the internet should be punished in some way.

That's a relief my host fills in the whois information twith theirs anyway, to protect the users privacy

Yeah that's what I like about them. Privacy.

We have 1000+ registrations with our details rather than our customers.

Thanks for clearing that up Matt, the news I read on it didnt say anything about that in it, checked it again earlier thinking I missed something.

Wonder why the news article said the jail time was for filling in incorrect whois info rather than for illegal domain useage.

I know you still cant fill in false whois info, I have registered a lot of domains for customers in my own name also (no where near the number you have done Matt hehe)