Two bills currently under consideration both include the same language: "A provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service shall retain for a period of at least two years all records or other information pertaining to the identity of a user of a temporarily assigned network address the service assigns to that user."

The bills, S.436 in the Senate and H.R.1076 in the House, are both titled "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today's Youth Act of 2009" or the "SAFETY Act." Just as an aside, I hate the cutesy names used to try to make questionable legislation such as this seem friendly.

For an ISP the logging requirement might be easily met, though not without considerable new cost. Is this someone's idea of an economic stimulus?

But, what about the increasing numbers of businesses that offer free Internet to customers and even the general public? And how do I maintain such records if you come over to my house and I give you a password for my access point?

Many public libraries provide free Internet access to patrons, including low-income people and the jobless. It appears each of these users would have to be positively identified and associated with an IP address.