I could go to jail for this...
cn | 09 January, 2006 14:25That's right - because I am currently posting this under a name (CN) that hides my identity, I am now, apparently, committing a crime. From cnet.com:
Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.
This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.
"The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."
That's right, the word 'annoy' is a part of this new law! Now, who gets to determine what the objective definition of 'annoy' is?
But perhaps this particular restriction would not have even survived to see the light of day on its own. As it turns out, it was piggy-backed on another completely unrelated bill:
Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and the section's other sponsors slipped it into an unrelated, must-pass bill to fund the Department of Justice. The plan: to make it politically infeasible for politicians to oppose the measure
Read the whole article here. Then write annoying emails to Arlen Specter under an anonymous identity.
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Computers/Technology, Ethics, Politics .
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