There is no cyberfraud here, just incompetence. There was no intent to
deny anyone access to a website. If Richard Cline ever calls me on the
phone or emails me asking me to turn the site over to him, I'd be happy
to do so. However, he hasn't asked for the site to be turned over to
him. As soon as he ASKS for access, he'll GET ownership of the domain.
He hasn't spoken with me on the phone, left a message on my answering
machine, or sent me a letter. He sent me an email, and I replied with
my phone number and asked him to call me, but he never did.
 
Competence means registering a site before publicizing it and also
contacting fellow citizens to try to resolve problems. Cline didn't do
either of these.
 
Imagine that someone is looking to buy a house and they see a house they
really like. Then they tell everyone to start sending their mail to
that address, when they don't own the house yet, and haven't even made
an offer to purchase it. And then they wonder why they can't get their
mail???? Advertising a domain when you don't own it is just as
ridiculous.

  _____

From: Mark Drury [mailto:mark@drury.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 4:32 PM
To: letters@almanacnews.com; CITY.COUNCIL@menlopark.org
Subject: Political Cyberfraud

I was dismayed but not wholly surprised to learn in The Almanac's Short
Takes of August 23rd that a supporter of the current Menlo Park city
council majority, one Sue Kayton, willfully and preemptively registered
the advertised domain name of city council candidate Richard Cline.

Ms. Kayton was quoted as stating that Mr. Cline is "incompetent" for not
having registered the domain name before advertising it in his ballot
statement, but Ms. Kayton's own competence (to say nothing of her sense
of ethics) might be called into question when one considers Sections
18320-18323 of the California Elections Code, known as the "California
Political Cyberfraud Abatement Act." The Act includes, in part:

(1) "Political cyberfraud" means a knowing and willful act concerning a
political Web site that is committed with the intent to deny a person
access to a political Web site, deny a person the opportunity to
register a domain name for a political Web site ... Political cyberfraud
includes, but is not limited to, any of the following acts:

(D) Intentionally preventing the use of a domain name for a political
Web site by registering and holding the domain name or by reselling it
to another with the intent of preventing its use, or both.

There are many reasons why Ms. Kayton might engage in cybersquatting --
none of them good -- but to then use the attention afforded her silly
gesture to air so nasty a comment about Richard Cline, whom she may not
even know, is simply inexcusable. If Ms. Kayton is typical of the
current council majority's supporters -- and I tend to believe she is --
then it is with all the more relish that I will cast my votes in
November, hoping to unseat Ms. Winkler, Ms. Duboc, and their cabal.

The Menlo Park City Council race is shaping up as Quality of Life vs.
Quantity of Development, and I know with certainty where Winkler and
Duboc stand on both issues.

Mark Drury
Willow Road
Menlo Park
Received on Fri Aug 25 03:51:27 2006