The New Jersey State Legislature has forwarded a bill that would make it illegal for site operators to accept anonymous commenters - so that includes blogs.

Obstensively this is about libel, and it’s not likely the bill will pass. However by the time lawyers are through it’ll just be easier to sign off. The bill uses the term ‘ reasonable’ which  essentially  puts the burden on you (site owner/blogger) to figure out how and after they put a warrant out for your arrest, if the prosecutor decides you broke the law, then a jury will decide if you took reasonable measures. Since technically anyone online operates in New Jersey it opens the door to potential litigation.

It’s not unlike the French/Yahoo suit which dragged on for 10 years. Yahoo complied even though they didn’t have a server on French soil.

Here is the New Jersey bill