Monday, January 09, 2006
The end:( C|NET) 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."
Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."
To grease the rails for this idea, 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.
The tactic worked. The bill cleared the House of Representatives by voice vote, and the Senate unanimously approved it Dec. 16.
[...]
Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying about reprisals.
In each of those three cases, someone's probably going to be annoyed. That's enough to make the action a crime. (The Justice Department won't file charges in every case, of course, but trusting prosecutorial discretion is hardly reassuring.) UPDATE: Maybe not (via Dadahead)
posted by Quiddity at 1/09/2006 10:12:00 PM
2 comments
I'm not sure how many of you have ever been stalked on the internet, but I for one, have.
Let me tell you the story about "Rachel," or as we more commonly referred to as "racHELL."
Back in 1998, when I was still way into hockey, the newly relocated Hartford Whalers, now known as the Carolina Hurricanes, made an offer to Sergei Federov of the Detroit Red Wings, which included at that time, an unheard of $25 million signing bonus. In hockey parlance, Federov was the king of two-way hockey. A forward that could play defense. A scoring forward, no less, that could play defense.
Now, the background surrounding that offer is a pissing contest between the two owners, both from Detroit, but that’s for another blog.
In 1998, my internet connection was dial-up, via AOL. I had become addicted to the public message boards, for hockey, and was a regular on the Los Angeles Kings’ board. So, when that offer came down, I started reading the Carolina Hurricanes message board.
What I discovered at that time, was the dominance of the board by an alleged 15 year old girl, named Rachel. "She" taunted the regulars on the board, not in any manner any 15 year old I ever knew. I started posting in response to "her" and invited a boatload of the Los Angeles Kings posters to join me. Thus began the "racHELL wars" on AOL.
At one point, my account was canceled by AOL because this "racHELL" person objected to the use of the word "ignorant" in a post, and thus I was alerted to the lack of free speech rights on private AOL: translated, that meant what one objected to, controlled what the majority was allowed to do. Within the confines of that, I became what I later referred to as a "professional poster" on AOL, which basically meant that I had learned the fine lines to posting, knowing just how far I could go without being considered a "flamer." Under this new law, a flamer would be subject to the criminal law.
This person took a personal affront to me, and what transpired from 1998 to 2001 was scary.
This person created screen names that were identical to mine (ok, so some were funny, like "HairyCann" to my "CarrieCann"), and would post on all sorts of boards with creepy stuff. This person would instant message spam me whenever I would log on, using new screen names that were not blocked at the time, and which took time to block. AOL could not help me, and only suggested I give up my master screen name and make a new one, which was a ridiculous suggestion, since the "girl" was able to find me due to my posting on message boards. Duh.
The last straw came when my mother passed away in 2000 and I used the internet to post a sale of her home, which included my real name, and my real personal home telephone number.
"racHELL" got hold of that information, and started posting my real name and phone number on pornographic sites, saying I was looking for a good time. My phone was ringing off the hook and I had to change my telephone number. Then came the blowout with AOL where I actually did have to give up my first original screen name, Carrie Cann (which I still use everywhere except on AOL, and which I even incorporated so that I have the exclusive use of that name). AOL’s great response was "call the police."
The only solace I received was having a few sympathetic AOL employees reveal to me that the alleged 15 year old was no 15 year old, and that it was not a girl. I knew it wasn’t a girl from the unbelievable vulgar language "she" used when instant message bombing me with stuff like "did you like doing it with your dog, you (expletives that were strung together)?"
"racHELL" hasn’t been seen or heard of on AOL public message boards since 2001. Still, if this law was around at that time, my beef with AOL might have had more meat to it.
How can you post items which might not be pleasing those in power without revealing who you are ?
You can't.
Your freedom of speech is completely compromised if you fear reprisal via police or IRS activities, or at the local level, via zoning boards, etc.
How can you post anything at all, without revealing who you are ? This country was founded in part by the anonymous publishing of the Federalist Papers, which laid the groundworks for revolution and the new government.
I find the passage of this law astonishing.
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