Are our days as anonymous bloggers limited? Not yet, but Kentucky lawmaker Tim Couch has proposed such a bill in his state legislature. From this source on March 5, 2008:
Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.Such legislation, if implemented on a national level, would have the effect of limiting freedom of speech and the dissemination of stories which the mainstream media will not cover.
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.
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.
[...]
Some said they felt it was a violation of First Amendment rights. Others say it is a good tool toward eliminating online harassment.
Represntative [sic] Couch says enforcing this bill if it became law would be a challenge.
The Left would like nothing better than to curtail the activities of bloggers, who serve as pamphleteers in the 21st Century. Although a Republican, Tim Couch is playing right into the Left's hand.
I'm sorry, the fact that this bill was introduced by a Republican is evidence that the left want to curtail the activities of bloggers how? Doesn't the fact that most major left wing blogs allow anonymous posting contradict this claim?
ReplyDeleteYes, Couch is a Republican.
ReplyDeleteMy statement about the Left and Couch indicates that he's playing, possibly unwittingly, into the Left's hand. I'm not citing Couch as proof of the Left's agenda to curb free speech--many other stories do that, though those stories don't necessarily relate to blogging. For example, the Left is the champion of political correctness and the use of euphmeisms ("Asian" instead of "Muslim" serves as one example of a multitude of examples).
I rather imagine that Couch's motives are as stated. But he's missing the point of free speech.
Thanks for your comment, Patrick.