New law will mean e-mail account holders will have to identify themselves

Onet.pl, Interia.pl and Gazeta.pl have sent an open letter to Sejm and Senate Speakers in protest against changes to the telecommunications law which will mean that e-mail services will be treated the same as mobile or fixed line phone services. The amendment will force people to show their ID card to open an e-mail address. No other country has such strict formal requirements. If implemented it will probably mean that Internet users would resign from using Polish portals and move their e-mail addresses abroad. (Puls Biznesu, p. 11) K.J.