At 10:17 PM Wednesday 2/21/2007, Gary Nunn wrote: >Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. > >It's no joke. 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. > >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.) > > http://tinyurl.com/a2kqp
Arguably it may be in response to such events as those described in the following article from CNN today: <quote> Ryan Patrick Halligan was bullied for months online. Classmates sent the 13-year-old boy instant messages calling him gay. He was threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly by so-called cyberbullies. In 2003, Ryan killed himself. </quote> Full article at <http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/02/21/cyberbullying.ap/index.html>. -- Ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l