http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Kentucky-Wants-To-Make-Anonymous-Posting-Illegal-92511

Kentucky Wants To Make Anonymous Posting Illegal
How exactly? We'll worry about that later
06:19PM Monday Mar 10 2008 by Karl
tags: legislation · content · Oddities
Tipped by jjoshua

While not broadband related, this might be of note to our users who just don't want to register, employees who dish out dirt, or professional proxy-server trolls: one Kentucky lawmaker would like to make posting to the Internet anonymously illegal, according to local Kentucky ABC affiliate WTVQ. As usual with this sort of half-baked plan, it's not quite clear how Kentucky Representative Tim Couch hopes to accomplish this. Websites are certainly going to love their financial obligation:
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. Representative Couch says he filed the bill in hopes of cutting down on online bullying. He says that has especially been a problem in his Eastern Kentucky district. Represntative Couch says enforcing this bill if it became law would be a challenge.
Yes, managing the anonymous activity of the entire Internet is a challenge. Shoving the entire universe into a mason jar for use as a personal flashlight would also be a pesky bother.

3/10/2008 10:49:37 PM

How do they plan to identify people? Oh no, xxxPS3sUxBallZxxx just insulted me on some blog. Surely that name is in the phone book. I'll look his up and send him a nasty letter.

3/10/2008 11:20:10 PM

Quote :

"Kentucky Representative Tim Couch"

!

3/10/2008 11:28:03 PM

GG Big Brother

3/11/2008 1:07:22 AM

Quote :

"He says that has especially been a problem in his Eastern Kentucky district."

He DOES know there are people that live outside of his district, right?

3/11/2008 5:28:42 AM

in related news your grandma still can't figure out how to use a tv remote

3/11/2008 7:55:46 AM

some more distilled info here - http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080310-lawmakers-attempt-to-criminalize-anonymous-posting-doomed.html

it's nice to see that our representatives are intentionally proposing unconstitutional bills just to make a point

Quote :

"Couch—who says that he has been the victim of anonymous Internet criticism himself—acknowledges that the bill is probably unconstitutional and claims that his goal is to draw attention to Internet bullying, which he says is a serious concern for many young people in his district."

3/11/2008 8:15:11 AM

Quote :

"Internet bullying, which he says is a serious concern for many young people in his district."

wow...these young people need to go outside and throw the ball around or something...if intarweb bullies are their greatest concerns, i think their priorities are misplaced

3/11/2008 8:25:51 AM

Quote :

"Representative Couch says he filed the bill in hopes of cutting down on online bullying."

lol somebody dial whine-one-one, this baby needs the whaaaaaambulance.

3/11/2008 8:47:50 AM

i'm kinda shocked that guy admitted that

3/11/2008 1:54:12 PM

^ he probably has become the laughingstock of everyone with a shred of technical sense in his district. now he's all like:

"oh, yeah ... i know - i know it won't ever happen, that was just my plan to draw all y'alls attention to ________. See there? How bout them apples!"

and

Quote :

"these young people need to go outside and throw the ball around or something"

FTW




[Edited on March 11, 2008 at 2:06 PM. Reason : ]

3/11/2008 2:05:45 PM

Stop bullying him online. He's already had to endure enough bullying in the real life (NFL).

3/11/2008 2:14:36 PM

JP

Quote :

"thats not ex-NFL QB Tim Couch is it? ....it's not, im dumb "

3/11/2008 2:21:07 PM