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.
