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Anonymous Emailer Annoyed By Anti-Annoy Law
from the start-the-lawsuits dept
While there's still some level of disagreement over what an updated law really says concerning the legality of anonymous annoying communications, the operator of an anonymous emailing service is concerned enough that it's decided to sue for an injunction against enforcing the law. The government's defense may simply be that lots of people are misreading the law -- but, perhaps that's a good reason that the language ought to be clarified.
Reader Comments
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That's the problem with the majority of
laws. They're not clearly written enough for a layman to read. Obfuscating the point with double talk just makes it so that more people break laws unknowingly since they didn't understand what they just read.
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Re: That's the problem with the majority of
Hah. You said Obfuscating.
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Re: That's the problem with the majority of
Ha. So did you. And you seem to have a proclivity for being pedantic and abstrusively tenebrous.
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Not so unclear really...
also/or
and/or
Not altogether unclear... it is only criminal if the intent is to annoy (abuse threaten or harass)...
The part that amuses me with getting up at arms is that it ALREADY included text messaging, paging, email, newsgroups... etc...
Doing any of the above (and MORE) over a "telephone call or utilizes a telecommunications device" is a violation.
I would have considered an internet connected PC to be a "telecommunications device" all along... and so would you...
This law was ALREADY there, they just clarified it...
Spammers are just about the only people SAFE from this, because their intent is (cough) pure... They ONLY want to advertise, possibly cheat you, possibly offer you fake rolex's... They are never actively trying to annoy you... the rest of us... eh... we tend to have other things in mind.
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Crying Wolf, again
The "interpretation" is a fiction concocted by the same guy who fabricated the Al Gore / Internet story (and for a time, was proud of that).
For the debunking, read: http://volokh .com/posts/1136873535.shtml
[Orin Kerr, January 10, 2006 at 1:12am]
A Skeptical Look at "Create an E-annoyance, Go to Jail":
Declan McCullagh has penned a column that is custom-designed to race around the blogosphere. It begins:
"Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. ... [ed: snip]"
This is just the perfect blogosphere story, isn't it? It combines threats to bloggers with government incompetence and Big Brother, all wrapped up and tied togther with a little bow. Unsurprisingly, a lot of bloggers are taking the bait.
Skeptical readers will be shocked, shocked to know that the truth is quite different. ...
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