Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.
The bill would require anyone who contributes to a website to register their real name, address and e-mail address with that site.
Their full name would be used anytime a comment is posted.
If the bill becomes law, the website operator would have to pay if someone was allowed to post anonymously on their site. The fine would be five-hundred dollars for a first offense and one-thousand dollars for each offense after that.
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written by adamspt 210 days ago
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This law is probably a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Anonymity is a part of freedom of expression. For example, the minutemen were anonymous and called themselves minutemen to avoid prosecution by the British. The NAACP in the deep south fought off demands for membership lists by local government and state officials to protect members from harassment. Authors historically have been allowed to write under a "Nome de Plume". With respect to enforcement, a web site can be set up and operated in such a manner that it is not possible to identify the owner. Moreover, what if one operates a web service outside of the United States: does the state of Kentucky have jurisdiction to enforce their law? What if the web site is in Michigan? Does Kentucky have jurisdiction over a web operation located in Michigan just because it can be viewed in Kentucky? Aristotle once noted that there are many things that can not be solved through laws and politics.
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This law is probably a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. Anonymity is a part of freedom of expression. For example, the minutemen were anonymous and called themselves minutemen to avoid prosecution by the British. The NAACP in the deep south fought off demands for membership lists by local government and state officials to protect members from harassment. Authors historically have been allowed to write under a "Nome de Plume". With respect to enforcement, a web site can be set up and operated in such a manner that it is not possible to identify the owner. Moreover, what if one operates a web service outside of the United States: does the state of Kentucky have jurisdiction to enforce their law? What if the web site is in Michigan? Does Kentucky have jurisdiction over a web operation located in Michigan just because it can be viewed in Kentucky? Aristotle once noted that there are many things that can not be solved through laws and politics.