Here is an interesting article for anyone who likes to spend time commenting
on blogs or engaging in exchanges via forums

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.

In other words, it’s OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog
as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors,
I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet,
is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice
Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in
prison.

“The use of the word ‘annoy’ is particularly problematic,” says Marv
Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “What’s
annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else.”

View complete article

here.

I have been involved in internet forums for a long time. I enjoy discussing
the issues in political forums. I was a member of the Bill Maher forum but ended
up leaving because of this very problem. There was an over abundance of abusive
trolls on there and it got to the point that we could not discuss the events.
This of course was due to a lack of involvement by the board management. Since
then I have left that board and joined a much nicer forum with active moderation
to prevent these problems. That board is Political-Nutshell and the environment
is a vast improvement.

As far as this law goes, it will be interesting to see how the first case
goes on it. I am sure we will see some charges within the next couple months and
I plan to follow the case very closely. The fact that it considers people who
“annoy” anonymously makes it an interesting point to argue. How do the
prosecution and defense define “annoy”. Perhaps it should of been made more
clear like “people who attempt to disrupt the operation of forums with multiple
identities” and include threats involving violence, death, or any other crime.