I demand that you use your legal name... so I can harass you more effectively

[sunnyskywalker]

I'm starting to think authors blogging is a bad idea. Besides EB failing publicly (comparison of her earlier statements and most recent here), I hear KC has now started threatening legal action (not bothering to link to her blog, because she changes the page locations and redirects to spam sites and such). On one hand, I would love to see her laughed out of court. On the other hand, that would cause undue stress and financial burden for anyone she dragged in with her, and scare many others into silence, and I don't want that.

This made me thing about names. Generally, I consider any name which someone uses over a long period of time, and which that person's community also uses, to be a "real" name, even if it isn't registered with the government as a legal name. This most recent development finally made it click for me what the big deal is with the widely-known-and-used-for-one-person type of name vs. a legal name: if you know the legal name, it's easier to use the legal system to harass someone. And if your legal name has more prestige and power than someone else's, you have an advantage. (ETA: thingswithwings said it more eloquently, plus linking it to the burden of proof.

Link for the day:

Birchbark Books, Louise Erdrich's Native-oriented bookstore.

Comments

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

English law is basically that your legal name is the name you are known by. For things like bank accounts and utility bills you need to demonstrate that this is so, and there are a number of ways of doing it; one is to put a notice in a newspaper saying "From now on I X am to be known as Y" and take that along to the bank etc. The posh way is to do it by deed poll. In any case, if I decided that more people know me as "Sollers" than anything else, it would be no big deal to do something about it. And if I could show that that was indeed what I was mainly known as, that would be that.

[sunnyskywalker]

That makes this whole "use your real name, not your online handle, which is obviously something only for criminals and flamers with something to hide" thing even more headdesky, then! Though I don't think this is the case in the US; at least, I've heard about people going through tons of legal paperwork to get their names legally changed. But that only makes the US-centric nature of the demand apparent, which doesn't help KC's case.

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

I certainly consider this name to be a "real" one. *grins* With the amount of time I've spent on the net as sodzilla, or as scaledun before that, there are probably as many people who'd recognize those names as would recognize Linda Larsson in meatspace. More, in fact, because my legal name is a pretty common one...

[sunnyskywalker]

Part of my LJ name is a nickname I once answered to. If anyone called me "Sunny" or "Sunnyskywalker" or "Sunnysky," I'd answer to it.

I've got a super-common first name, but an unusual last name, so I don't use it online - not because I'm ashamed of my words or anything like that, but because a) when I'm talking to (potentially) millions of people, a few of them might be stalkers, and why make it easier for them? and b) I work for a school. Parents might google employee names, and while I don't think I've done anything wrong, I'm also not saying it as an employee of the school and who knows what parents will take issue with. I don't want the school to suffer because someone out there hates Chewbacca.

Besides, there's also reason c) this blog mostly is about my fannish thoughts, and what better way to signal that than with a name? It's part of me. It's fun to choose a name - not that I don't like mine, but it's not like I had a choice in the matter.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

For some reason, my mental image of KC is now increasingly J. Jonah Jameson. I assume it's only a matter of time before she starts hiring supervillains to uncover the real identity of that damned Spiderman- I mean, pseudonymous bloggers...

[sunnyskywalker]

*looks up J. Johah Jameson* Hee! Yes, I can see that. Clearly I need to read more comics, too.