Pubdate: Sun, 09 Mar 2003
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Contact:  2003 Lexington Herald-Leader
Website: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Tina Kelley, New York Times News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Paraphernalia (Paraphernalia)
Note: See MAP Focus Alert #263 at http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0263.html
regarding the war on bongs.

FOR DRUG PARAPHERNALIA SHOPPERS, IT'S A BAD TRIP

DEA Seizure Raises Entrapment Issue

Wired burnouts take heed: Two weeks ago, after the federal government shut 
down 11 Web sites that trafficked in drug paraphernalia such as bongs, 
roach clips and cocaine spoons, the Internet addresses didn't simply 
disappear from cyberspace. Instead, visitors to sites like PipesForYou.com 
and aheadcase.com are likely to be routed to a Drug Enforcement 
Administration message.

"The Web site you are attempting to visit has been restrained," the message 
reads in part. The words are superimposed on an American flag.

The wares peddled by these Web sites -- as well as by neighborhood head 
shops -- are illegal. But it wasn't until the advent of the Internet, the 
government says, that drug paraphernalia became a billion-dollar industry 
- -- one that Attorney General John Ashcroft and the DEA say they will no 
longer ignore.

Web surfers heading to some of these sites will not be told that the domain 
name "cannot be found," as they would if the name were wiped off the 
Internet. Instead, they could end up on a DEA server, where they'll see the 
message and the flag. That's raising concerns among some experts in 
Internet and civil-liberties law. Is the electronic flag announcement a 
cautionary message to visitors that they are being tracked?

Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of 
Pennsylvania, said that new visitors are not being tracked. Still, Marc 
Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center 
in Washington, an advocacy group, said the DEA's actions raised intriguing 
issues under the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches 
and seizures.

"The courts have to look at this," he said. "I don't think it's immediately 
obvious that police have the right to seize Web sites in this fashion.

"It's about investigative methods and techniques, and what police can do in 
the online world that they can't really do in the off-line world," he said. 
Once the government takes control of a domain, Rotenberg explained, it has 
the ability to record personal information from all the visitors to the 
site. "It becomes like electronic flypaper," he said. "It can effectively 
continue to operate the business to attempt to entrap others in the future."

Jonathan Zittrain, a director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and 
Society, said the DEA's recent action is simply part of a law-enforcement 
trend. "They're realizing a big open network provides lots of opportunities 
to canvass for crime, which would otherwise require a lot of sweat on the 
street," he said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jackl