This is really stupid. Of course I think, if you are proud of your words and opinions, you should use your real name. I personally always add my real name to my comment stoppers. Someone tell this guy this is a stupid idea. Think he will read this?

A "bill"? Taxpayer funded? Here we go again.

What an idiot! What a complete moron. Silverstein is now on my list. This person is exactly the reason why our state is in the condition it's in.

This is how dictatorships start. Everyone forced to say who they are. Then someone says something against the current powers that be. The powers know who said it and punish them. Now everyone falls in line or gets punished.

From George Orwell's 1984:
The government attempts to control not only the speech and actions, but also the thoughts of its subjects, labelling unapproved thoughts with the term thoughtcrime or crimethink.

It is the job of the Thought Police to uncover and punish thoughtcrime and thought-criminals. They use psychology and omnipresent surveillance (such as telescreens) to monitor, search, find and arrest members of society who could potentially challenge authority and status quo, even only by thought, hence the name Thought Police.They use terror and torture to achieve their ends.

What a "Doubleplusgood" idea you have there Ira!

I happen to agree with Sen. Ira Silverstein . I own a third generation small family owned business and provide a great service to the community. I'm a chamber member in all of my locations along with being an A+ member with the BBB. I work hard to maintain a good reputation, however if one customer has a bad day and his/her appointment runs 5min late they blast you with negativity on the internet. People who hide behind computers are just bitter, sad, depressed people.

Strangely omitted from this article is the identification of Senator Silverstein's political party affiliation.
If you look at today's Patch article about State Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) regarding his proposed pension solution, it fully identifies him and his political party.
It is traditionally done in every article involving a public servant to elected office.
Allowing readers to better examine patterns or splits over issues within a party they may or may not support.
A quick Wiki check also revealed that Sen. Silverstein is married to a Chicago Alderwoman. Making this attempted censorship story that much more interesting. Since being in the public eye is part of the family business.

It's pretty sad that this Senator chose to waste his time on an issue so trivial.
Only to abandon it anyway.
Particularly since he is an attorney, and should have known such a bill would never stand up to legal scrutiny. Let alone ever get passed.
Not to mention bringing undesired attention to him and his party.

In essense, I agree that too many Internet commenters leave very hurtful, spurious comments that can make the Internet a vile place to post. People who have nothing to do but stir up trouble (trolls) have been the bane of the Internet since it started. However, there still must be the availability of anonymity on the Internet, and o do not think this bill would allow that in its present form. There are too many restrictions that can be used by companies like Comcast to benefit themselves and become the Police of the Internet

And this guy went to law school. Having formerly taught in a law school, I would want to beat any former student of mine over the head with a case book if one ever proposed such a thing.

Plus, how did he think that a law proposed for the internet in Illinois, would EVER be enforceable on websites based outside of Illinois?
How could such legislation ever be policed?
It's as absurd as charging sales tax on eBay sales within your same state.
People simply have an out of state friend bid on an item for them.

On the remote chance that such crazy censorship was even ever passed, any affected companies would simply move their headquarters out of Illinois as a practical matter.
He probably thought it would then apply to local news outlets, who in theory couldn't move.
Guess what, the Trib now openly uses Facebook comments on their online articles. And how many millions of fake profiles are on that?
Again, a complete waste of a sitting Senator's time.

For the motherbleeping win

And I quote

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Well well atleast the scare tactic seems to be working . You would think there would be more comments on a subject like this.. Dont think for one moment that these people in higher power dont already know who we commenters are on here . Since ive been on patch ive noticed 2 people in higher power where i live dont talk to me any more , which im fine with. And my wife begs me to stay off of here since she has noticed a cop car sitting in front of our house a few times a week for the last couple months .

Wow. I am stunned that a legislator would consider such a thing. Thanks to Kevin for reminding us. Wow.

And Fred? Curious you won't use your full name. Good luck with that hypocrisy thing.

Two intriguing questions from this story are:
1. What was the reasoning behind Senator Silverstein's bill?
2. Why did he withdraw it?

One can surmise all sorts of answers but only he can be the definitive source.

I can think of no reasonable reason for the proposed bill. The great danger that can lead us down a slippery slope is it is censorship of public communication. There are many legitimate reasons why one wishes to be anonymous in their postings. There is nothing to fear in the open market place by freedom in the expression of one's ideas and thoughts.

This is the very foundation of a free society. The obverse is suppression, slavery, and oppression. Mr. Silverstein, your reputation is on the line unless you give a reasonable explanation for your behavior. Do you support a free society or do you advocate a 1984 slavish, closed, and unfree society?

Privately owned media for communication traditionally are self-censoring with a line being drawn as well as regulating laws that limit speech both written, oral and symbolic to certain standards regarding the boundaries of community values and standards. Attribution of sources is not a community standard anywhere I know unless the organization promotes censorship and tightly controlled speech.

The ball is in your court Mr. Silverstein and the noose is getting tighter by the minute.

I guess he missed all of the other times this has been tried and failed citing previous Supreme Court rulings.
https://www.eff.org/issues/anonymity

I just can't leave this alone. A quick search on the net (anonymously, of course) reveals this piece (partial):

The Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that “anonymous communications have an important place in our political and social discourse,” and that this is an idea that’s been upheld by the Supreme Court. They cite a particular decision (McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 1995):

Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical minority views…Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority…It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation…at the hand of an intolerant society.

Here is the source: http://www.webpronews.com/meet-the-internet-posting-removal-act-an-illinois-bill-thatll-make-your-head-spin-2013-02

The same Senator Silverstein has now also proposed a bill to boot your car if you fail to pay a bill -- any bill -- owed to the government. On as little as 24 hour's notice. Fail to pay your water bill, for example, car gets booted! http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20130226/BLOGS02/130229846/bill-would-let-city-boot-cars-for-unpaid-bills

The nuts are running the asylum.

remember people, the power is ours, vote these morons out. Government of the people, by the people and for the people. Obviously this moron thinks he's sly, I will not be voting for him.

Thank you, Seymour. I thoroughly agree with you and have been saying the same for many years. Americans are uninformed and ignorant and, thus, are easily persuaded to vote for morons. Our form of government requires an educated, informed citizenry who must diligently collect information about issues. Americans are too lazy to do this. It's much easier to get information from a 20-second sound bite.

Another nanny-state meddler, male part of a husband-wife political union which derives salaries from being a senator ($67,836/yr) plus $132/per diem (that means what extra $$$ he can claim daily while struggling in Springfield thinking up new laws) and from being a Chicago alderman (min. $104,101) creating a whopping $171,937 for such humble dedication to public service and to bank deposits. And don't forget pensions, insurance and so forth. We won't need a tag day to raise cash to help them survive, Ira has a legal practice. Ah, me o'my! What dedication. Two national treasures! Ain't we lucky to have them???
At a time when there are countless identity violations on the web, brainiac Ira wants exact names available...Yeah, Ira! Available to stalkers and loonies and angry politicians who could now get a direct address to a person's residences and phone!
Time to create some retirements.

I like the comments here so much I've read them twice. So nice to see there are still folks out there who understand.

This guy needs to be put in a rubber room.