Get with the program, The Big Sexy. Already posted here.
I thought Republicans were all about limited government...
Create an e-annoyance, go to jail
January 9, 2006, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh
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 news:
Government Web sites are keeping an eye on you
Patriot Act defender touts 'safeguards'
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."
It's illegal to annoy
A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet, you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.
"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
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.
There's an interesting side note. An earlier version that the House approved in September had radically different wording. It was reasonable by comparison, and criminalized only using an "interactive computer service" to cause someone "substantial emotional harm."
That kind of prohibition might make sense. But why should merely annoying someone be illegal?
There are perfectly legitimate reasons to set up a Web site or write something incendiary without telling everyone exactly who you are.
A law meant to annoy?
FAQ: The new 'annoy' law explained
A practical guide to the new federal law that aims to outlaw certain types of annoying Web sites and e-mail.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.)
Clinton Fein, a San Francisco resident who runs the Annoy.com site, says a feature permitting visitors to send obnoxious and profane postcards through e-mail could be imperiled.
"Who decides what's annoying? That's the ultimate question," Fein said. He added: "If you send an annoying message via the United States Post Office, do you have to reveal your identity?"
Fein once sued to overturn part of the Communications Decency Act that outlawed transmitting indecent material "with intent to annoy." But the courts ruled the law applied only to obscene material, so Annoy.com didn't have to worry.
"I'm certainly not going to close the site down," Fein said on Friday. "I would fight it on First Amendment grounds."
He's right. Our esteemed politicians can't seem to grasp this simple point, but the First Amendment protects our right to write something that annoys someone else.
It even shields our right to do it anonymously. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas defended this principle magnificently in a 1995 case involving an Ohio woman who was punished for distributing anonymous political pamphlets.
If President Bush truly believed in the principle of limited government (it is in his official bio), he'd realize that the law he signed cannot be squared with the Constitution he swore to uphold.
And then he'd repeat what President Clinton did a decade ago when he felt compelled to sign a massive telecommunications law. Clinton realized that the section of the law punishing abortion-related material on the Internet was unconstitutional, and he directed the Justice Department not to enforce it.
Bush has the chance to show his respect for what he calls Americans' personal freedoms. Now we'll see if the president rises to the occasion.
biography
Declan McCullagh is CNET News.com's Washington, D.C., correspondent. He chronicles the busy intersection between technology and politics. Before that, he worked for several years as Washington bureau chief for Wired News. He has also worked as a reporter for The Netly News, Time magazine and HotWired.
Get with the program, The Big Sexy. Already posted here.
I don't read every thread, dear gae. And quite frankly, you're annoying me.
How does jail sound?
The whole concept of the internet annoys me. I shall dwell in a peaceful world, where any potential annoyances have been carted off to jail.
Fie on the lawmakers who bury inane and unworkable laws in other acts.
Fie on them!! They annoy me, and they are just lucky they did it under their own names, or they would feel the wrath of justice!
And I am pretty sure that my sig line annoys Sluggo - or at least it would if she knew what it meant.
[img]graemlins/devil.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Feh. You know who I am, so you can't threaten me.Originally posted by The Big Sexy:
I don't read every thread, dear gae. And quite frankly, you're annoying me.
How does jail sound?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Feh. You know who I am, so you can't threaten me.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I thought I knew you...but I really don't. Just who is gae, anyway? Why go under an assumed acronym?Originally posted by gae:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by The Big Sexy:
I don't read every thread, dear gae. And quite frankly, you're annoying me.
How does jail sound?
Oh please please please
Let us not limit this to the internet. Please let me subject anonymous people who annoy me in Real Life to police action.
YOU! The person who took 13 items into the 12 items or less line at the supermarket! You annoy me and should be subjected to police action.
YOU! The person who won't step off the escalator and move forward in a reasonable way at the mall! You annoy me and should be subjected to police action.
I can avoid most assholes on the internet by judicious use of the "ignore" function. There should be a delete button for Real Life.
Let us overwhelm the police with petty grievances so that perpetrators who wreak serious havoc in Real Life have less chance of being apprehended.
[img]frown.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ah, I've been looking for the answer to that question for years. When you find out, please let me know.Just who is gae, anyway?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Add to that list all the people who won't stand up for grammar and insist that those signs read "12 items or fewer.YOU! The person who took 13 items into the 12 items or less line at the supermarket!
Or that guy on I-75 every morning at 6:30 who thinks the left lane is exclusively his!
<font color="#FFFFAA" size="1">[ January 12, 2006 07:41 AM: Message edited by: The Big Sexy ]</font>
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