I had the honor of testifying, in writing and orally, to the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property Oversight Hearing on Internet Domain Fraud & US Government’s Role in Ensuring Public Access to Accurate Whois Data. My written testimony.
Intentionally Invalid Whois Data
Edelman, Benjamin G. “Intentionally Invalid Whois Data.” US House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, September 2003.
As the DNS is currently structured, registrants are under only an honor system to provide accurate Whois data. Meanwhile, it makes no economic sense for registrars to enforce Whois accuracy. The result is that in terms of accuracy, when compared with other compilations of public data (such as driver’s licenses and trademark registrations), the Whois database is substantially fiction. I suggest 1) a reduction in the lenience of opportunity to “cure” intentionally invalid data, 2) for registrants with multiple domain names with intentionally invalid data, forfeiture of all domains when any are to be cancelled, 3) statistically valid surveys of registrars’ Whois accuracy, with public reporting of each registrar’s accuracy, 4) public reporting of Whois accuracy complaints and their dispositions, and 5) financial and other penalties to registrars with poor Whois accuracy records.
Compliance with UDRP Decisions: A Case Study of Joker.com
Compliance with UDRP Decisions: A Case Study of Joker.com. (June 2003)
After a URDP panel orders a domain name transferred from respondent to complainant, the respondent’s registrar is obliged to do so. However, practitioners report that this process sometimes proceeds unduly slowly, if at all. This research attempts to quantify the magnitude of the situation and to report specific domains not transferred to their UDRP complainants, UDRP decisions notwithstanding.
Research yields 23 domains registered by registrar Joker.com, successfully challenged in a UDRP proceeding (one as long as three years ago), yet at the time of publication still registered to their original registrants at Joker.com. At least some of these domains seem to have been renewed by their current registrants, subsequent to UDRP decisions ordering their transfer.
Expert Declaration in Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Company, LLC, et al. v. the Gator Corporation
I had the honor of preparing two expert declarations in Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Company, LLC, et al. v. the Gator Corporation in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia. My clients were the plaintiffs in the case, including the Washington Post Newsweek Interactive Company, Gannett Satellite Information Network, Media West-GSI, the New York Times Company, the Boston Globe Newspaper Company, Dow Jones, Smartmoney, the Chicago Tribute Interactive, Condenet, American City Business Journals, Cleveland Live, and Knight Riddler Digital.
Soon after my declarations, the case settled, and Gator stopped covering my clients’ sites with its popup advertising and other ads.
Documentation of Gator Advertisements and Targeting
The Gator Corporation designs software to display advertisements on users’ computer screens, triggered in part by the specific web sites users visit. The author has developed an automated method of determining which specific advertisements Gator has associated with which web sites, data that may be helpful to web site operators, policy-makers, and others in assessing Gator’s practices. This article offers listings of more than eight thousand specific sites targeted by Gator as well as analysis of the advertisements shown. An interface is also available to let interested Internet users to test Gator’s advertisements on their own.
Benjamin Edelman v. N2H2, Inc.
I sought to research and document sites categorized and restricted by Internet blocking program N2H2. N2H2’s block site list is protected by technical measures including an encryption system, but I sought to write software that would nonetheless allow me to access, analyze, and report its contents. However, I feared that conducting this work might expose me to liability for violation of the N2H2 License, of the Copyright Act of 1976, and of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, as well as for misappropriation of N2H2’s trade secrets. With representation by the ACLU, I therefore sought from federal court a declaratory judgement that I could conduct this research and publication without fear of liability.
Web Sites Sharing IP Addresses: Prevalence and Significance
Web Sites Sharing IP Addresses: Prevalence and Significance. (September 2013)
More than 87% of active domain names are found to share their IP addresses (i.e. their web servers) with one or more additional domains, and more than two third of active domain names share their addresses with fifty or more additional domains. While this IP sharing is typically transparent to ordinary users, it causes complications for those who seek to filter the Internet, restrict users’ ability to access certain controversial content on the basis of the IP address used to host that content. With so many sites sharing IP addresses, IP-based filtering efforts are bound to produce “overblocking” — accidental and often unanticipated denial of access to web sites that abide by the stated filtering rules.
Replacement of Google with Alternative Search Systems in China: Documentation and Screen Shots with Jonathan Zittrain
The authors are studying Internet filtering in countries worldwide, and current investigations focus on restrictions on web access in China. Using a web-based system to test web filtering in China, the authors previously determined and confirmed that Google was inaccessible from at least one testing location in China; initially, in testing beginning August 29, a request for Google led to the error “host not found,” consistent with requests for other inaccessible or blocked sites. However, using related methods, the authors have now confirmed and documented reports that Chinese Internet access currently provides pages other than the ordinary Google home page in response to requests for google.com; such behavior is believed to have begun on September 8. The screen shots in this article document six instances of this replacement. Full article.
Qualified as expert in Internet filtering over objections from US Department of Justice
In Multnomah County Public Library et al., vs. United States of America, et al. (an ACLU challenge to the Children’s Internet Protection Act), I prepared an expert report, then was offered as an expert for oral testimony. Counsel for the United States of America challenged my credentials, remarking on my youth and lack of relevant credentials. The United States’ challenge was overruled.
The voir dire challenge of my designation as an expert:
Q Mr. Edelman, the highest academic degree that currently hold is a high school diploma, isn’t that correct?
A That’s correct.
Q The undergraduate degree that you expect to receive in June of this year is the only undergraduate degree that you will hold when you receive it, isn’t that right?
A That’s correct.
Q And that undergraduate degree that you have yet to receive that you will receive in June of 200 will be in economics, is that correct?
A I will in June of 2002 receive a undergraduate degree in economics, that’s correct.
Q And you will not receive any degree in computer sciences, is that correct?
A That’s correct.
Q You don’t belong to any professional associations currently, is that right?
A That’s correct.
Q And you currently hold no professional licenses, is that correct?
A That’s correct.
Q You have not published any articles in any scholarly journals, is that correct?
A That’s correct.
Q And you have not published any peer reviewed articles of any kind is that correct?
A That’s correct.
JUDGE BARTLE: He may have no peers.
Q You testified that you spent nine years doing consulting for various organizations, is that right?
A Yes.
Q And you began that consulting while you were still in junior high school, isn’t that right?
A That’s correct.
Q You currently other than the teaching responsibilities that you have at Harvard College you don’t hold as formal teaching appointment, do you?
A I do not.
Q You also testified that you previously given testimony in Federal Court, is that right?
A Yes.
Q On one occasion you testified before an Federal District Court, is that correct?
A That’s correct.
Q You were not deposed for purposes of that testimony were you?
A I was not.
BHATTACHARYYA: I render my objection, Your Honors, to the qualifications of this witness as an expert under the Federal Rules of Evidence.
Remarks by the three-judge panel in qualifying me as an expert:
JUDGE BECKER: Well, I would observe that some of the great figures in history have been autodidacts could spend a half a morning listening to all of the autodidacts.
[Rule] 702 says that it’s scientific technical or otherwise specialized knowledge, assist in the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue. In other words the helpfulness standard. A witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training or education may testify thereto in the form of an opinion. That’s the applicable standard.
I know how I’m prepared to rule. Judge Fullam?
JUDGE FULLAM: I have two reasons for ruling the same way. One is that we waited just so we could hear this witness, and I think that would be a terrible waste.
The other is that I happen to on occasion rely upon my six year old grandchild for advice on the internet and computer.
JUDGE BECKER: Okay. Ms. Bhattacharyya, your objection is overruled. Mr. Edelman is qualified to give expert testimony.
Expert Report and Appendices for Multnomah County Public Library et al., vs. United States of America, et al.
I had the honor of testifying, in writing and orally, in Multnomah County Public Library et al., vs. United States of America, et al., an ACLU challenge to the Children’s Internet Protection Act. My expert report, rebuttal report, and supplemental report include documentation of specific pages wrongly blocked by adult filters.
See also my oral testimony including the United States’ attempt to prevent me from being qualified as an expert.