The CDA Is Dead, But States Are Trying To Revive It 205
oliphaunt writes "This week at The Legality, Tracy Frazier has an article discussing the damage that can be done by anonymous online comments. While regulars here are familiar with infamous bits of Net censorship like the Fishman Affidavit fiasco, and everyone has been an anonymous coward at least once or twice, some of you may not know about the conflict between Heide Iravani and AutoAdmit.com. Heide eventually filed a lawsuit because the first result for a Google search on her name brought up anonymous comments on AutoAdmit that accused her of carrying an STD and sleeping her way to the top of her class. The Communications Decency Act was supposed to prevent this kind of thing, but an injunction prevented it from ever being enforced and eventually the Supreme Court killed it. Should the law be changed?" The article links to a proposal from last summer in the New Jersey legislature that would institute a DMCA-like takedown regime for allegedly defamatory content posted on a Web site, and would allow aggrieved parties to demand the identity of anonymous posters without a subpoena. No indication of how that proposal fared. Also linked is a recent North Carolina proposal that would criminalize the act of defaming someone using an electronic medium. This proposal shields Web sites from liability and explicitly does not apply to anonymous speech.
As soon as anonymous posting is outlawed... (Score:2, Funny)
Good news and bad news (Score:0, Funny)
Bad news:
Free speech on the Internet is dead.
Good news:
Heide Iravani will sleep with anyone! So, geeks of the world: get your clean t-shirt out of the closet (or at least the one that hasn't got Mountain Dew stains down the front), comb that long hair down (no need to break your yearly washing cycle though), and get it while she's hot!*
* Anonymous Coward will not take responsibility for any awkwardness, erectile dysfunction or venereal diseases caught during sex with that woman.
Re:Criminalise? (Score:4, Funny)
You misheard. He's in a period.
Re:Selfish Slashdot (Score:4, Funny)
"Which one is the chemist? And which one is the guy who died on a passenger ship in the first half of the 1900s? "
So, you're saying you faked your own death?
Re:FROSTY PIST (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Criminalise? (Score:3, Funny)
Perhaps his head is up his colon?
Re:Criminalise? (Score:1, Funny)
Bathroom Walls (Score:2, Funny)
I wonder why we never had these problems with bathroom walls?