Don’t annoy me - I’m on the internet

Civil liberatians may think this is US Government policy gone mad. According to a CNET news article, it is now officially illegal in the USA to anonymously “annoy” someone over the internet.

The CNET article claims that the legal wording of the new legislation means that any kind of internet “annoyance” - even something fairly benign such as user “flaming” on discussion boards - is now illegal. Other commentary says the intent of the law is actually to prevent unsolicited telemarketers from ringing Americans via VOIP technology - previsouly, there was a legal loophole which allowed telemarketers to cold-call via VOIP but not via standard phones. All semantics really, isn’t it? But that’s law for you.

Should you wish to learn more the article is here, or you can check out Dubbya’s web page for yourself.