Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

[Malevolent]

Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal - Video - WTVQ 36 - Lexington, Kentucky

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch filed a bill this week to make anonymous posting online illegal.
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.
Action News 36 asked people what they thought about the bill.
Some said they felt it was a violation of First Amendment rights. Others say it is a good tool toward eliminating online harassment.
Represntative Couch says enforcing this bill if it became law would be a challenge.

This is just arrogance and stupidity. More stupidity than arrogance tho...

[Dymlos]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

Better be shot down. People on message boards don't need to know my real name and address. This screams invasion of privacy.

[Ameroth]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

Kentucky Representative...

Nothing more need be said about stupidity or arrogance. Didn't know they even had the internet in Kentucky.

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There's no possible way to enforce this as a real law.

[Murphie]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

There isn't even any reason to worry, or be annoyed. He doesn't understand the way the internet works, obviously.

[Ameroth]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

There isn't even any reason to worry, or be annoyed. He doesn't understand the way the internet works, obviously.

Exactly. Another moron trying to impose legislation because he's too lazy to parent his kids. If your child is a victim of "cyber-bullying," give him a book to read. S/he is too young and naive to be online anyway.

[Malevolent]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

Didn't know they even had the internet in Kentucky.

lol WWW doesn't stand for world wide web for nothin... <-sarcasim

[MrMageo]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

probably ran into someone who put him in his place, now wants to make everyones names and addresses available so next time he losesa debate he can go show em what up.

[Malevolent]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

There isn't even any reason to worry, or be annoyed. He doesn't understand the way the internet works, obviously.

Eh i'm not worried, annoyed no...Dissapointed yes. i wonder what other great ideas he has in his mind...

[Jarre]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

I would ask who well would the said website protect my personal details i.e. RL address? It just makes it easier for someone to pinch a person identity.

[Murphie]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

wut?

[Ameroth]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

He speaks in anagrams. You must decipher.

[Feba]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

Will never, ever get passed.













Then again, it is Kentucky. When they pass it, it'll be entertaining to see how long it takes whatever shell of a web hosting industry is there to move or die.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

Oh, it'll get passed. You'd be surprised what can get passed. It's enforcement where these things fall flat on their face.

For instance, every year the Utah Legislature puts out a few "message bills". They're usually to the effect of "We, the people of the state of Utah, think Uncle Sam is wrongheaded and incapable of understanding X, so we're going to do this about it." These are invariably very stupid, unconstitutional and incapable of being enforced. Every lawyer retained by the state tries futilely to explain this to them in the bill process. Yet, we do it anyway, throw perfectly good money we could be spending on fixing potholes at it, and get struck down by the courts or nullified by the enforcement agencies. A slightly more effective solution might be to have each legislature standing in front of a large windstorm and relieve themselves, but as that's rarely an option, we have these bills instead.

The problem stems from the fact that we have citizen legislatures. We have non-professional politicians running our state governments for a variety of reasons, being closer to "the people", less costly, etc. But, one unfortunate result of this is that you end up with people in power who really don't understand what they can and cannot do. For instance, this year it was revealed that one of our politicians wrote a letter to a judge on behalf of a friend and campaign contributor. This letter criticized the judge for ruling against that friend in a dispute on land rights. He pointed out in this letter that he was on the committee that approved said judge and was very disappointed that the judge would refuse to be "impartial" and instead turned out to be one of those "activist judges". At the time this came to light, the politician in question "Chris Buttars", was the new chair of the judicial appointment committee. Not only is that a conflict of interest, but it violates the separation of powers inherent in govt. A first year political science major could probably see the problem with writing judges from the legislature period, let alone if you chair their appointment committee, a citizen legislator did not.

This bill will be passed unless there's significant opposition to it already. It will be another "message bill", that states Kentucky's position on something, but doesn't have the teeth or specifics of enforcement to really do anything. Most likely the court system will strike it down within a year. To make it enforceable, it would have to specifically apply just to web traffic in Kentucky that is accessing servers also in Kentucky, because any server in say New York affected would be considered an unconstitutional restriction on interstate commerce. Or, it would have to setup a firewall affecting all of Kentucky that blocks traffic in and out of the state if it doesn't conform to this rule. Setting up such a firewall would basically bankrupt Kentucky if implemented in any kind of effective manner.

[Raydeus]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

Ok, let me see if I understand this correctly.

So this Tim Couch (is that even a real name?) got pwned on some forum and since his e-pride got hurt so badly he now wants to know everyone's real name so he can go beat them up in the real?

Extra bonus lawlz if this kind of law actually passed.

[Akashimo]

Re: Kentucky Lawmaker Wants to Make Anonymous Internet Posting Illegal

So dirt cheap-er land for sale within the next year?


Also, why do we let people who have no clue hold power?
Feba for President 20##
He will fix(read: undo) the american stupidity

One more thing, how come we haven't offically labeled privacy directly on the Constitution yet? Its implied, sooner or later thats going to be challenged and bye-bye private stuff. Need to be ammended soon I say. Now i just thought of this show I saw in Government called The West Wing, episode The Short List.