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The U.S. Declines to Classify the Use of Proxy Servers as Sophisticated
The United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) recently considered a series of amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines for judges that were proposed by the United States Justice Department. Where there is evidence of “sophistication” in planning certain types of crimes, such as embezzlement and forgery, the sentencing guidelines instruct judges to increase sentences by about twenty-five percent. The proposed amendments would have deemed the use of proxy servers as evidence of sophistication where used to mask a criminal’s identity. Internet users can hide behind proxy servers to mask their identity, which is otherwise generally known according to unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
The USSC decided that the use of proxy servers when committing a crime is not necessarily evidence of sophistication that should attract increased sentences.
Although the USSC declined to comment on its reasons, it may have considered the fact that many people do not realize that proxy servers are facilitating their Internet communication, while people who do choose to use proxy servers, whether for personal safety reasons or otherwise, can do so relatively easily, without requiring any sort of “sophistication”.
For additional information, visit:
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090415/ap_on_hi_te/tec_punishing_proxies