Police Officer In Jail For Buying Domains Of Police Chief & Pointing Them To Porn

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.