For many Internet users, logging onto the Web and anonymously posting their thoughts in a chat room, Web log, or other interactive site is part of the allure of the World Wide Web.

But while the Web may appear to be an open and free area for comment, a controversial remark posted about a company or individual by a Web user can quickly draw Web users into a complex and protracted legal battle.

A legislative bill that will be considered tomorrow (Tuesday, May 6) by the judiciary committee of the California state Assembly would address the matter by providing Internet users with more legal protections.

The bill, AB 1143, is being sponsored by Assemblyman Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto). It was drafted by a law clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall) that is serving as legal counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based Internet civil liberties organization pushing for such legislation.

Deirdre Mulligan, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic and an expert on privacy law, will attend Tuesday's committee hearing along with law clinic students.

"California has a long Constitutional and statutory tradition of providing strong protections for privacy," said Mulligan. "This legislation builds upon that history in an important area of First Amendment law: Protecting anonymous communication on the Internet."

Assemblyman Simitian, a Boalt Hall alumnus and chair of the Assembly's select committee on privacy, also noted the importance of this issue.

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Berkeley