Introduced by Rep. Charlie Hoffman (D) on January 11, 2008, to make it a crime to communicate with a person, anonymously or otherwise, via the internet in a manner which causes annoyance or alarm and serves no purpose of legitimate communication. Anyone convicted of this form of "harassing communications" would be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor on the first offense and, on subsequent offenses, a Class A misdemeanor.
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee on January 15, 2008.
1) vote grabber alert [by manoverthere on January 24, 2008] Is this about getting votes from people who don't install anti-spam software? Reply
2) First Amendment? [by David Dunn on January 12, 2008] This is another negative nanny piece of legislation attacking American values.
Most computers are already equipped with adequate spam blocking features. In fact, they even block some things that aren't spam.
Too, there can be all kinds of computer glitches. It also appears that someone who receives an email from you can forwarded it on so that it looks like it coming directly from you.
Even if the person receiving the forwarded e-mail is not on your e-mail list, it looks like it's coming directly from you.
If you send an email to a group that another person can pick up, somehow it apparently can be forwarded to whomever s/he's spamming while all the time it looks like it's coming from you.
Then there's the fail-safe method of ignoring spam. Press the delete key. So far, it's worked every time.
Too, you can tell your computer that certain e-mails are spam and it will block subsequent e-mails.
This legislation is a piece of overkill and amounts to nothing more than an attack on American values, namely First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, press, etc.
E-mails do constitute a form of press.
Bloggers have taken over the job of the Fourth Estate since the media has ceded that responsibility in order to maximize corporate profits.
Put this legislation in the trash can labeled Demagogues, Tyrants, Censors, and other like-minded persons. Reply
3) a bit too strong [by newmark on January 11, 2008] I would like a way to fight the spammers. Unfortunately, the language of this is too strong, and most of the spam comes from overseas anyway.