Sunday, February 05, 2006

Flaming hell

Just catching up with the news from America. It seems that early this year, President Bush enacted a law which makes it illegal to post annoying web message or send annoying email-messages anonymously or without revealing your true identity. While a case could be made to say there is some merit to this, it obviously leaves whistleblowers and critics who would prefer not to be identified for fear of reprisals in a less than desirable position. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.
That being said - how would they find you? It would seem use of the internet does not allow for let alone guarantee any form of anonymity. And what of the rights to free speech as contained in the American Constitution? And if you send an annoyance through the mail - can you still do that anonymously? And does this mean that if an American were to claim they were being continuously annoyed by spam - that someone would finally do something about it?

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