From C|NET News comes this little tidbit:It seems that buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, recently signed into law by President Bush, is language that prohibits the posting of annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity. Sec. 113 of the law, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."
The penalty is up to two years in a federal prison in addition to hefty fines.
I won't offer an advisory opinion on the constitutionality of this provision but for the time being at least, I hope you don't find any of my posts annoying.
***UPDATE***
Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr posts here that this is much ado about nothing. Eugene Volokh rebuts that position here.
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