Richard Stallman points to this article about a "Internet Real Name Law" recently enacted in Korea. From the article:
The Internet Real Name Law, which was passed at the plenary session of Parliament on March 9, 2004, requires Internet media and press websites to verify all names and identification numbers of authors who post messages on bulletin boards or chat rooms regarding elections. If not complied with, a penalty of 10 million won can be incurred. The Section 5, Part 8 of Election law, defines the Internet press group as whoever reports or provides articles which are gathered, edited and written for the purpose of reporting, commenting and disseminating the public opinion regarding political, economical, social, cultural and current affairs through the Internet, or who manages and controls websites where such articles are displayed, or who manages and controls websites which serve a similar press group purpose.
If this silly law is allowed to stand, for all practical purposes it will be illegal to run a BBS or any other interactive website (like a Wiki or a Blog with comments open) in Korea. Fortunately, there is a strong backlash. People are angry and declare publicly that they don't intend to obey this law.
Never take Internet freedom for granted. A lot of people are working hard to turn the Internet into one big instrument of surveillance and suppression.
Posted by Karl-Friedrich Lenz at May 5, 2004 12:33 PM | TrackBack