Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.
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.
What’s almost as messed up as the concept itself is the way it was shoehorned into some other legislation. The way laws are passed these days is ridiculous, and needs to be reformed. The bill itself (HR3402 - Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act) is primarily a budgetary authorization for the DOJ, with some minor (loosely related) parts dealing with violence against women that was included in the title (probably in an effort to make it more presentable). Then you’ve got the internet thing buried in there somewhere. These things need to be separated into their own bills instead of the congress voting on package deals which are encumbered with too many unrelated issues. This one is a perfect example, since if anyone voted against it they would be accused of somehow being opposed to fighting “violence against women” or something like that.