Anonymity for Thee…

This press release from Annoy.Com is bizarre. On the one hand, the government went after Annoy.Com because it enables people to communicate anonymously, but on the other hand the government put a gag order on the very existence of the case for a year. This is almost as absurd as the habit some appeals courts have of never publishing their decisions.

It is sites like Annoy.Com that are going to kill online privacy and create popular support for government intervention. A story about the indictment includes a link to the anonymous e-mail greeting card that got this whole case started, though be warned it is pornographic. Actively helping people send unsolicited threats (and Annoy.Com has to be joking if they do not think that is clearly meant to be construed as a threat when sent unsolicited) is just feeding into the censorship frenzy, and it is just plain bad manners besides.

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