big brother is reading

From here on out, you might want to be careful where you comment:

A Nevada newspaper says it has been served a federal grand jury subpoena seeking information about readers who posted comments on the paper’s Web site.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Tuesday that its editor, Thomas Mitchell, plans to fight the request, which the newspaper received after reporting on a federal tax fraud case against business owner Robert Kahre.

…

Mitchell said anonymous speech is “a fundamental and historic part of this country.” The newspaper would consider cooperating if specific crimes or real threats were presented, he said.

The newspaper said the subpoena bears the name of U.S. Assistant District Attorney J. Gregory Damm, a lawyer on the Justice Department team that is prosecuting Kahre and others on charges including income tax evasion, fraud and criminal conspiracy.

…

The newspaper said it received the subpoena June 2, a week after its story describing the government’s case against Kahre, a Las Vegas construction company executive accused of paying contractors with gold and silver U.S. coins based on the precious metal value of the coins but using the much lower face value of the coins for tax purposes. Kahre and the other defendants have pleaded not guilty.

The story drew nearly 175 online comments by Monday night, most in support of Kahre and critical of the government and jurors and attorneys in the case.

One commentator said: “The sad thing is there are 12 dummies on the jury who will convict him. They should be hung along with the feds.”

Another called Damm a “socialist, fascist Mormon” and a “Nazi moron.”

The comments are written under pseudonyms. Along with the real names of people who posted comments, the subpoena asks the newspaper for the writers’ gender, birth date, physical address, telephone number, Internet service provider, IP address and credit card numbers.

Maybe this newspaper makes commeters register with more information than I had to provide at the newspaper websites I frequent, but how, exactly, is the newspaper expected to know the actual gender, birth date, physical address, telephone number, and credit card numbers? What the hell business does the newspaper have with that information anywise (assuming the commenters are not paid subscribers, which is a pretty good assumption these days), and how is the last one in any way relevant to the court case?
Also, no one ever lies on registration forms…
How much longer will it be before the government starts filing subpoenas with hosting companies to try and determine information concerning webloggers whose sites are hosted there? And how many hosting companies do you think will have the nerve to stand up to the government? First, they came for the commenters…