Here's a copy of a new proposed piece of legislation that will be getting some press the next few days. It's called the "Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008," or the  APCPA. It's ostensibly aimed at stopping Phishing -- a laudable goal -- but in some places the cure is as bad as the disease.

Take, for example, Section (c)(2), at pages 10-11 of the PDF, which says that a registrar must takedown any whois proxy information if it receives a letter or facsimile or email from anyone in the world claiming that the Act has been violated. The Act imposes no obligations that the written notice be made in good faith, and places no penalties on people who send proxy-takedown letters in bad faith.

The irony is that the proxy-takedown letter itself could be false --  false identity, pseudonym, or made anonymously -- and the registrar would have a duty to takedown the proxy information.

If passed in this form, this provision could have incredible anonymous speech ramifications, as all you'd have to do to unmask someone is submit a proxy takedown letter.