Re: Florida case involves on-line anonymity

["Don H. Coombs" <doncoombs@moscow.com>]

Thanks to Bill London for posting the message about on-line anonymity.

I find it depressing that the ACLU would be defending the right to
defile people anonymously, under the guise of "free speech." I
understand why the ACLU should defend the right of all kinds of weird
organizations in North Idaho to speak out, as long as they take
responsibility for the opinions. That's what the ACLU is supposed to do,
and if we don't allow others to speak out freely, we will sooner or
later not be able to speak out freely ourselves.

I find it encouraging that the Internet is to quite an extent still
free, but that shouldn't allow and encourage criminal and unethical
behavior. And, at some point, if we don't want to trash many of the
remaining Main Street stores, some kind of practical tax on e-commerce
should be instituted. The alternative is to look elsewhere for tax
revenue, such as to income taxes, so as to not unfairly burden the local
stores.

And when we think about the future of the Internet, we should remember
that at one point (50 years ago) television was considered to belong to
the American people, with commercial broadcasters paying for the
privilege of broadcasting. Now we have no-kidding-around commercials on
what is called "public television." That was Ronald Reagan's suggestion
for how public television should support itself, and we seem to have
accepted it.

Don H. Coombs