If you annoy me...

[elfs]

If you post anonymously and annoy me, I shall have your ass tossed in jail:

Whoever utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person who receives the communications shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. (U.S. Code, Sec 113)

Nah, I wouldn't do that. Even the anonymous posters in this blog are usually cool. And I value free speech just a little too much. Harrassment I deal with privately (as in, "I have the managers of the private property known as LiveJournal deal with you") and threats, naturally, will be taken seriously. But "annoy"? How does one legislate and prosecute being "annoying?" Can we send Adam Sandler to jail?

There's probably some legal definition of "annoy" that has nothing to do with Adam Sandler.

Comments

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

Hey! I like being annoyed by Adam Sandler! Your post annoys me!

Oh... it wasn't anonymous though. Any idea whether a psuedonym is "anonymous"? At what point? Mine is plausibly linked to m, but what about codeamazon?

This won't stand, though I share your annoyance over it. Hmmm....

Get trolled, win valuable prizes.

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

cargoweasel: "If being annoying on the Internet is now a crime, they'd better start building some new prisons."

[halloranelder.livejournal.com]

Can we please send Adam Sandler to jail? Pretty please?

It really makes you wonder whether the people who make these laws have any idea what they are talking about. Have these people ever used the internet?

[slutdiary.livejournal.com]

I guess some people really don't want a Rolex Replica.

[yohannon.livejournal.com]

I can already hear the tales that are yet to be told of the great UseNet purges of aught seven. Whole newgroups of posters forced into close quarters in federal pens across the land.

There could be one, very small silver lining: At long last we will be able to PROVE that those trolls really were living with their maternal parent well into their 30's and suffering from under-developed male genitalia.

Annoy? Hell, they'll have me up on crimes against humanity if mere ability to annoy is taken into account.

~Y~

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Good News: Spammers are annoying.

Bad News: A looming Supreme Court containing Alito, and we already know how Bush reacts to being annoyed by protestors.