Your Congress, at Work

(HT Instapundit)

Yeah, this is gonna be fun to see enforced. Can't you just imagine the fun of tracking down a Wi-Fi hot spot user from a Starbucks?

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings--or face fines of up to $300,000.

That broad definition would cover individuals, coffee shops, libraries, hotels, and even some government agencies that provide Wi-Fi. It also sweeps in social-networking sites, domain name registrars, Internet service providers, and e-mail service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail, and it may require that the complete contents of the user's account be retained for subsequent police inspection.

The Bill passed 409-2.

Kudos to La Crosse Democrat Ron Kind...for not showing up to vote.

The techno-jargon wrapped in the light-speed legislative journey of this bill (from introduction to passage was less than two months) can be read here. It's quite informational, you find out most of the bill is redundant.