New Jersey may prohibit anonymous posting on forums:
A bill introduced in the New Jersey Assembly would require websites to collect and make available the legal names and physical addresses of anyone posting on an Internet forum.
The law aims to prevent “false or defamatory messages” from being protected by anonymity.
Specifically, it requires that the legal names and addresses of anyone posting a defamatory message must be made available to any parties who claim to have been damaged.
Here is the text of the proposed bill:
ASSEMBLY, No. 1327
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
212th LEGISLATUREPRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2006 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman PETER J. BIONDI
District 16 (Morris and Somerset)SYNOPSIS
Makes certain operators of interactive computer services and Internet service providers liable to persons injured by false or defamatory messages posted on public forum websites.CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.An Act concerning the posting of certain Internet messages and supplementing chapter 38A of Title 2A of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
“Information content provider” means any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service.
“Interactive computer service” means any information system, service, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides service to the Internet.
“Internet” means the international computer network of both federal and non-federal interoperable packet switched data networks.
“Internet service provider” or “provider” means any person, business or organization qualified to do business in this State that provides individuals, corporations, or other entities with the ability to connect to the Internet through equipment that is located in this State.
“Operator” means any person, business or organization qualified to do business in this State that operates an interactive computer service.
- The operator of any interactive computer service or an Internet service provider shall establish, maintain and enforce a policy to require any information content provider who posts written messages on a public forum website either to be identified by a legal name and address, or to register a legal name and address with the operator of the interactive computer service or the Internet service provider through which the information content provider gains access to the interactive computer service or Internet, as appropriate.
- An operator of an interactive computer service or an Internet service provider shall establish and maintain reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name and address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person on a public forum website.
- Any person who is damaged by false or defamatory written messages that originate from an information content provider who posts such messages on a public forum website may file suit in Superior Court against an operator or provider that fails to establish, maintain and enforce the policy required pursuant to section 2 of P.L. , c. (C.) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), and may recover compensatory and punitive damages and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee, cost of investigation and litigation from such operator or provider.
- This act shall take effect on the 90th day following enactment.
STATEMENT: This bill would require an operator of any interactive computer service or an Internet service provider to establish, maintain and enforce a policy requiring an information content provider who posts messages on a public forum website either to be identified by legal name and address or to register a legal name and address with the operator or provider prior to posting messages on a public forum website.
The bill requires an operator of an interactive computer service or an Internet service provider to establish and maintain reasonable procedures to enable any person to request and obtain disclosure of the legal name and address of an information content provider who posts false or defamatory information about the person on a public forum website.
In addition, the bill makes any operator or Internet service provider liable for compensatory and punitive damages as well as costs of a law suit filed by a person damaged by the posting of such messages if the operator or Internet service provider fails to establish, maintain and enforce the policy required by section 2 of the bill.
That would be one big step for totalitarism. A nice excuse for Big Brother and other controllers.
to impossible to even begin to police.
I’ll go to jail before I turn over info on the users. And addresses? Please.
That’s why we love you so.
Now I’m off to vote for BooMan in as many places as possible. What other blogmaster would go to jail for our civil liberties?
I won’t give up my address to you, but in the summertime my husband lives at 1060 West Addison Street, Chicago, IL. Will that be good enough? ;o)
I don’t know about my first husband, if he is till alive or not, so I can not say where he is now…but anyplace close to hell is my guess. My second husband, bless his little heart, probably in hell if the truth be known…so I seriously doubt that anyone would go near them. My addy is not publishable for I declare the fifth on that one…:o)
Thanks for taking a stand, booman,.hugs
Is it Joliet Jake or Elwood? Those Bush Nazis sure are gonna be upset if they can’t find him there… But it’s good to know you’re married to a man who’s on a mission from God.
…that I love you? ;o)
I know it’s cliche, but have you ever seen the end of Spartacus, where everyone starts standing up and saying, “I am Spartacus”?
I have this idea, you see. So many of us don’t want to deal with the bullshit that comes with having our real names known. And the notion that the everything is different because the interent is even more bullshit. This law and the asshole behind it are just screaming to be mocked, and heckled out of public life.
Might I suggest our dear friend Publius ?
Publius was the pseduonym used by Hamilton while writing the Federalist Papers, which argued for the US Consitution, and parts of which have become must reads for any student of American government.
Booman, Philly’s next to New Jersey, right?
I think that it’s time for Publius (I am Publius, not I am, not I am Publius) to take a trip to the Garden State the Assembleyman has a public event…….
The only problem with this is that with the butterfingers I have, I may screw up the typing of the name and get myself into a bit of scandalous trouble. :o)
One time when I was an intern one of my fellow interns had a typo on a letter being sent out to constituents about his bosses new position on the Public Health committee, guess which word they mispelled.
is
16400 Southcenter Parkway, #200
Seattle, WA 98188
Come arrest me and as many of my friends as you can find there. 🙂
My address is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington DC 20500-0003
Of course I’m not there too often – who is?
You beat me to it!
(Accursed time zones …)
Don’t they have any real problems in New Jersey?
Some background by Declan McCullagh
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What irks Biondi, a top Republican in the state assembly, is the political free-for-all that has grown around the New Jersey Star-Ledger’s discussion site at NJ.com. The site’s forum for Somerset County–that is, Biondi’s home district–is home to a slew of pseudonymous posts that tend to be less than kind to local politicians.
When news reports revealed that Somerset County Sheriff Frank Provenzano appropriated more than $5,000 from a petty cash account to pay for his dry cleaning, the NJ.com posts were not flattering. One message from “nodoubletalk” called Provenzano a “thief, plain and simple,” while one from “xyzzy” quipped: “That’s what we get for voting Republican.”
Another local flap involved Stephen Obal, the Bridgewater, N.J. police chief criticized for spending two hours a day at the department’s gym when he should have been at work. On NJ.com, “frenchtoast2” called Obal and the mayor “masters of deception, partners in corruption.”
Others on NJ.com have taken potshots at Biondi himself, chafing at what “glennvl” labeled the assemblyman’s “arrogance.”
Those remarks violate Biondi’s sense of political propriety. “What it’s turned into is people just bashing each other, name-calling, personal issues, that kind of thing,” Biondi’s chief of staff, Scott Ross, told me on Friday. “It’s all anonymous. Nobody knows who’s calling who what.”
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Hal C
TALLEY v. CALIFORNIA, 362 U.S. 60 (1960)
McINTYRE v. OHIO ELECTIONS COMM’N, _ U.S. _ (1995)
Only Scalia and Rehnquist dissented in McINTYRE.
The freedom to publish anonymously may be protected but it’s not a matter that can force a private business to provide a platform. That’s why the pressure is directed toward the internet-forum hosts and service providers.