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NY State Senator Proposes Banning Anonymous Free Speech on the Net
Daily Tech ^ | May 25, 2012 | Jason Mick

Posted on 05/27/2012 4:18:16 PM PDT by bkopto

All users posting to websites would have to post their real name and address, non-compliant posts would be axed

When people think anonymity, Anonymous and their iconic Guy Fawkes masks often pop into mind these days. But long before the members of that controversial hacker collective were a mere twinkle in their mothers' eyes, another anti-authoritarian rabble-rouser was using anonymous protest to stir up revolt against a totalitarian ruling elite. His name was Thomas Paine, and his anonymously published work Common Sense helped ignite the colonists in revolution against Britain.

I. Want to Post? Put Your Legal Name and Address Here!

Yet today in the country that Thomas Paine's anonymous writings helped to give birth to, a country in which speech is supposedly free, something alarming is happening. Several states are looking to outlaw online anonymity.

New York is among them. The State Senate is contemplating Bill S6779 a measure that would force users to post (and verify) their home address, IP address, and legal name in any post they make online.

That's right; New York is considering laying waste to privacy and anonymous speech in the name of "preventing" online bullying. The bill describes:

A web site administrator upon request shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate. All web site administrators shall have a contact number or e-mail address posted for such removal requests, clearly visible in any sections where comments are posted.

It's unclear exactly how much support the bill has in the State Senate. It was introduced just over two months ago by Sen. Thomas F. O'Mara (R—Big Flats).

(Excerpt) Read more at dailytech.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; US: New York
KEYWORDS: freedomofspeech; nannystate; rino
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In the eyes of our political class, there is no right to privacy, unless you want to kill an in-utero baby or if your grade schooler wants birth control pills.
1 posted on 05/27/2012 4:18:24 PM PDT by bkopto
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To: bkopto

Depressing to see that it is an idiot pubbie proposing this.


2 posted on 05/27/2012 4:20:42 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: bkopto

Isn’t against the law in Iowa to take a photo of an industrial animal raising facility? Free speech phooey...long gone.


3 posted on 05/27/2012 4:22:18 PM PDT by pointsal
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To: bkopto
All users posting to websites would have to post their real name and address, non-compliant posts would be axed

What a joke!

I would have to use EGPWS everywhere I interact on the Internet.

Personal freedom and personal rights are disappearing fast.

4 posted on 05/27/2012 4:23:24 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: bkopto

It’s only for the protection of right thinking people.


5 posted on 05/27/2012 4:26:49 PM PDT by Drill Thrawl (The United States of America, a banana republic since 1913)
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To: bkopto

Good grief. No one should fear anything online. This isn’t grade school and there aren’t even sticks and stones. It’s printed. You don’t like it, don’t read it. Someone puts something on your facebook that hurts your widdle feelers then unfriend them and get off that stupid site. Someone emails you, block their address and delete it. How simple is that? But noooo, we have to have a Bill!!!! Some little minority of ridiculously stoooopid sheeple mess the internet up for the rest of us.


6 posted on 05/27/2012 4:28:54 PM PDT by bgill
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To: bkopto
It was introduced just over two months ago by Sen. Thomas F. O'Mara (R—Big Flats).

Wonder if he's friends with Dede Scozzafava

7 posted on 05/27/2012 4:29:04 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (FUMR)
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To: bkopto
How is a state gonna enforce this?

Only on web sites hosted in NYS? And how will it know who those are?

Do not the NYS idiots know how easy it is to move a web site?

8 posted on 05/27/2012 4:30:14 PM PDT by upchuck (Need is not an acceptable lifestyle choice; dependent is not a career. ~ Dr. Tim Nerenz)
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To: COBOL2Java
More likely he is friends with (soon to be former) NY State Sen Jim Alesi [R].
9 posted on 05/27/2012 4:32:12 PM PDT by kevcol
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To: bkopto

Someone needs to remind this ignorant fool that the Federalist Papers were published anonymously.


10 posted on 05/27/2012 4:32:46 PM PDT by Maceman
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To: upchuck
Do not the NYS idiots know how easy it is to move a web site?

Statists don't believe in the law of unintended consequences, human economic behavior, or anything other than zero-sum planning.

11 posted on 05/27/2012 4:33:58 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (FUMR)
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To: bkopto

Instead of this idea, why not focus on voter ID?

Oh, well, silly to bring it up I guess...


12 posted on 05/27/2012 4:34:50 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: bkopto

Shades of Hussein’s “National User ID”.


13 posted on 05/27/2012 4:35:46 PM PDT by kevcol
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To: bkopto

So...voter i.d. laws are unconstitutional, but you will have to prove who you are on an anonymous site on the internet to simply post an opinion?

Makes perfect sense to me.


14 posted on 05/27/2012 4:38:09 PM PDT by berdie
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To: bkopto

This is a good application for rule .308


15 posted on 05/27/2012 4:38:28 PM PDT by Drill Thrawl (The United States of America, a banana republic since 1913)
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To: bkopto

Post Office box rentals will soar.


16 posted on 05/27/2012 4:39:26 PM PDT by lightman (Adjutorium nostrum (+) in nomine Domini--nevertheless, Vote Santorum!)
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To: bkopto

That NC teacher who threatened her student with arrest for criticizing Obama was just a few months ahead of her time...

This is the first step toward a new Sedition Act....


17 posted on 05/27/2012 4:42:16 PM PDT by Uncle Ike (Rope is cheap, and there are lots of trees...)
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To: Uncle Ike

This is about attacks like Joe the Plumber received.

Its about attacking even those who give to any campaign other than Obama’s

This is about harrassment, and attacking anyone who doesn’t enjoy the Kool-aid.


18 posted on 05/27/2012 4:46:13 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: bkopto

The bill is bad enough on its own, proposed by a Republican, makes me want t vomit.


19 posted on 05/27/2012 4:46:17 PM PDT by svcw (If one living cell on another planet is life, why isn't it life in the womb?)
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To: bkopto

I’ll post my real name.

KISS MY ASS


20 posted on 05/27/2012 5:00:22 PM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal The 16th Amendment!)
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