According to CNET News.com, which first reported on the story
yesterday, the new rule was slipped into a Department of Justice
funding bill entitled the "Violence Against Women and Department of
Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005," which passed without much
attention.
It takes the form of an amendment to the 1934 Communications
Act, and extends a provision criminalising a person who:
“makes a telephone call or utilises a
telecommunications device, whether or not conversation or
communication ensues, without disclosing his identity and with
intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the
called number or who receives the communications”.
The definition of "telecommunications device" includes “any
device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications
or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or
in part, by the internet”.
