Registering a domain name with a famous trademark or name in order to profit from it is a felony in Arizona. Arizona's governor Janet Napolitano may have done this with the famous name of one her Republican challengers – the nephew of the late Barry Goldwater.

It was recently reported that the domain names goldwater4governor.com and dongoldwater.org are forwarded to Governor Janet Napolitano's campaign website. Don Goldwater is a Republican candidate challenging Napolitano for governor this year in Arizona. His campaign website is goldwater4governor.org. Besides possibly violating state campaign law and federal law against cybersquatting, the domain name forwarding may constitute criminal felonies, according to a criminal law attorney who was consulted on this. The Goldwater campaign has stated that it is filing a complaint with the state's Clean Elections Commission.

The two websites are registered anonymously using Go Daddy Software's proxy service, Domains by Proxy, so it is unclear who purchased them. However, it is suspected that the Napolitano campaign is responsible, which should not be difficult to determine. If there is a legal dispute over a domain name registered anonymously through Domains by Proxy, Domains by Proxy is very likely to drop the anonymity rather than waste their own legal resources on a third-party dispute not their responsibility. The $4.99 price the customer pays for anonymity does not justify the price of additional legal work. Their anonymous registration contract authorizes them to cancel the anonymity for any reason. Once Goldwater's legal team or the Clean Elections Commission files a complaint with Domains by Proxy, the identity of the domain name owner will likely be revealed shortly.

The Napolitano campaign is already under investigation by the state Clean Elections Commission for registering its janet2006.com domain name almost two years before registering as an election committee, as well as creating the website prior to filing.

Computer tampering is a felony under Arizona's criminal code, A.R.S. 13-2316. The statute was drafted in the late 1970's and has been interpreted broadly since then to apply to the Internet. It states that computer tampering includes "altering…any part…of a network…with the intent to…execute any scheme…to deceive…or to control…services by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representation," or "recklessly disrupting or causing the disruption of…network services or denying or causing the denial of network services," or "preventing a computer user from exiting a site…or network-connected location in order to compel the user's computer to continue communicating with, connecting to or displaying the content of the…site."

The domain name forwarding also very likely violates a second felony statute, A.R.S. 13-2316.01 , unlawful possession of an access device. That felony is committed by "knowingly…controlling an access device without the consent of…the owner or authorized user and with the intent to use…that access device." The definition of "access device" includes any "means of account access…that can be used…to obtain…anything of value…"

If the domain names are registered to the Napolitano campaign, they probably violate civil campaign finance laws because it is doubtful the campaign reported them as campaign contributions on its campaign finance reports. If it turns out the domain names were registered by the Arizona State Democratic Party, they also likely violate campaign finance laws because it is equally doubtful that the party would have reported them as independent expenditures supporting of the Napolitano campaign. Regardless of who registered them, the felony laws could apply.

The possession and forwarding of the domain names may also constitute cybersquatting, which is prohibited by the federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. It prohibits obtaining domain names "in bad faith that are identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark." This includes "typosquatting," where a variation of a famous name is used in order to trick Internet users into thinking they will be led to the famous site but are led somewhere else instead. Since Don Goldwater is the nephew of the famous late Barry Goldwater, he has a strong claim to the Goldwater name as a "mark."

If it turns out the domain names are registered to Napolitano's campaign, she could be facing serious felonies – and felony convictions would end her re-election chances, putting a Republican governor into office in Arizona.