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.
"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."
Evidently Mr. Bush has managed to define the completely subjective "annoy" in completely objective terms and that is really a good thing because I am annoyed by a lot of stuff these days.
Since I post using a pseudonym I am going to be really busy defending myself because I intend to try and annoy everyone I can. If you would let me know what really annoys you I will be sure to write about it. It will save me guessing and possibly missing the opportunity.
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