Bad News For Proxy Users

"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Proxy servers are an everyday part of Internet surfing. But using one in a crime could soon lead to more time in the clink.

"A key vote Wednesday on new federal sentencing guidelines would classify the use of proxies as evidence of `sophistication,` increasing sentences by about 25 percent _ which could mean years or even decades longer behind bars, depending on the crime. It's akin to judges handing down stiffer sentences when a gun is used in a robbery.

"Yet digital-rights advocates are worried. Although they aren't absolving criminals, they complain that the proposal is so broad, it could lead to unnecessarily harsh sentences for tech neophytes who didn't know they were using proxies in the first place or who were simply engaging in a practice often encouraged as a safer way of using the Internet..."

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