skippy the bush kangaroo: i am atrios!

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

i am atrios!

our good blog buddy chicagodyke at correntewire sends us distressing news: a jersey legislator has introduced a law to make it illegal to post anonymously on the internets:

this bill would require an operator of any interactive computer service or an internet service provider to establish, maintain and enforce a policy requiring an information content provider who posts messages on a public forum website either to be identified by legal name and address or to register a legal name and address with the operator or provider prior to posting messages on a public forum website.

the bill requires an operator of an interactive computer service or an internet service provider to establish and maintain reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name and address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person on a public forum website.

in addition, the bill makes any operator or internet service provider liable for compensatory and punitive damages as well as costs of a law suit filed by a person damaged by the posting of such messages if the operator or internet service provider fails to establish, maintain and enforce the policy required by section 2 of the bill.

but as prometheus 6 reminds us, this would be cost-prohibitive.

addendum: our lovely co-blogger, tami, the one true, writes about this on her blog (actually, she steals someone else's writing about it, but she does so anonymously).

ottami suggests that new jersey residents write rep. biondi and share their opinion.

double addendum: august j. pollack, who once worked for a new jersey assemblywoman, tells us why this is all a tempest in a teapot.

also remember, august is the guy that designed our new logo!

Example