According to turnto10.com the site of an NBC affiliate station in Rhode Island, “A Richmond police officer faces charges after state police said he purchased domain names containing variations of the chief’s name which redirected Internet users to pornographic web sites.”
The domain name involved according to one report were the elwoodjohnson.com and elwoodjohnsonjr.com.
“Steven Gravier, 41, was arraigned Friday in Providence District Court and charged with using misleading domain names on the Internet. ”
“He was released on $10,000 unsecured bond.”
If you didn’t know it is a Federal Crime in the United States to use a misleading domain names on the Internet and send the domain name to certain types of porn.
The US statute is 18 USC § 2252B – Misleading domain names on the Internet:
(a) Whoever knowingly uses a misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a person into viewing material constituting obscenity shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
(c) For the purposes of this section, a domain name that includes a word or words to indicate the sexual content of the site, such as “sex” or “porn”, is not misleading
(d) For the purposes of this section, the term “material that is harmful to minors” means any communication, consisting of nudity, sex, or excretion, that, taken as a whole and with reference to its context.
(e) For the purposes of subsection (d), the term “sex” means acts of masturbation, sexual intercourse, or physical contact with a person’s genitals, or the condition of human male or female genitals when in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal.
Joeray says
So if you don’t point the name to a porn site your OK?
Michael Berkens says
under this law yes
JNet says
Thank goodness that nothing so severe happened to anyone involved in ” the big scandal” surrounding the domain purchase & Whois Privacy breach on ChefPatrickSucks.com …. It was claimed that porn ads/links showed up on the web page for a while….. However da Chef did seemingly lose his job at Moniker during the aftermath
Michael Berkens says
I believe that this law was not on the books back then
Adam Strong says
Wait a sec Mike, I can’t believe this . You’re telling me that there is no porn star named Elwood Johnson ? Can’t be possible.