Kentucky Legislator Wants To Make Anonymous Postings Illegal

Posted on March 11, 2008

Kentucky Representative Tim Couch wants you to register your full name, address, and email with a website before you can comment on it. At least according to a bill he’s introduced in the Kentucky Legislature.

From Action News 36:

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.

A challenge?!? How about down right impossible.

But don’t throw away those pseudonyms yet. This is a state legislator not a US Congressman or Senator so his wishes have no bearing anywhere because the internet crosses international as well as state boundaries. A state law in Kentucky cannot be enforced in Ohio, in London, or for that matter in Moscow. Where would the line be drawn, in which state the site owner resides? Or the state where the server is located? If a commenter is from another state or country, how would this state legislator propose to fine them? Challenge? More like IMPOSSIBLE.

No matter how much I hate the imbeciles who attempt to post comments here anonymously, this bill is a waste of time for the Kentucky Legislature because it is unenforceable. Couch claims to be trying to curb cyber bullying or could his motivation be political in nature. Could he be taking a stab at the blogosphere in general?

No matter how much I would like to know who Fatso Eddie and Kevin the Chimp really are, I don’t care enough to support a law such as this. Now, if some one would design a WordPress plugin that would require such information in order to post a comment, I might be interested in employing that plugin. That would piss off Meat for Brains wouldn’t it?