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Banning Anonymity?

UPDATED

Names@Work: Senator Would Outlaw Anonymous Blogs. New proposed legislation (in Brazil) would make it a crime, punishable by four years in jail, to anonymously send email, join a chat forum, download content, or write a blog.

This is going to be a constant battle around the world in coming years. Governments loathe anonymity.

But we need to defend it, despite the problems it sometimes causes. Anonymous speech is essential in some circumstances, such as when a speaker’s life or livelihood is threatened by telling the truth.

UPDATE: Looks like the idea isn’t going to pass, at least not in the near future.

3 Comments on “Banning Anonymity?”

  1. #1 Seth Finkelstein
    on Nov 7th, 2006 at 1:12 pm

    Owww … Dan, did you do any checking before echoing this?

    Oh hell, what’s the use, why bother, I’ll only get you mad at me :-(.

  2. #2 Roberta Zouain
    on Nov 8th, 2006 at 8:32 am

    Hi Dan, thanks for posting this. The project voting was cancelled today and will be submitted for “society discussion” before a new date is set up. There are some other projects waiting to be voted regarding online crimes, mainly due to recent problems with orkut communities being used by drug resellers, racist groups and so on.

    Greetings from Brazil.

  3. #3 The Gilmore/Gillmor Boys » Names@Work » Blog Archive
    on Nov 8th, 2006 at 1:39 pm

    […] “So John Gilmore linked to my post today.” […]