Private Mailing Lists

Today, on a private mailing list, I've been reminded on about what's so good in private mailing lists: it seems that nowadays, in USA, annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. That doesn't include what I do here in my blog when I say that Sony sucks and stuff like that, but just because I say in my blog that "my name is Marcos Daniel Marado Torres, but I'm often known in the Internet by the handle of Mind Booster Noori", and thus showing my identify (or whatever, I don't see how does this shows that I am who I claim to be, but... whatever...).

Here's the news, from where I'll quote:

Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

Wow, go America, go!