Publicizing IP addresses oftentimes doesn`t do anything. It really depends on how they are connecting. For example, I`m connecting to Ax through a coffee shop`s free wireless internet connection. I walk into the coffee shop using a laptop that I borrowed from work. I turn on the laptop and browse the available internet connections and voila! I`m online. The coffee shop has no clue who I am. This isn`t even my laptop.

As a website owner, I could block that IP of the coffee shop, which would still be lame because what if other people accessed Ax through that coffee shop? But, a common reader of the forum wouldntt be able to do anything with this IP that I`m using right now (at the coffee shop) unless they wanted to track it down to the location and meet me here to confront me or something. That`s not cool.

In that case, Phil is probably right. The website could be liable for something like that happening after publishing an IP address. I could imagine a website owner being taken to court over that. There would be a couple of differences between the liability with that and the liability with a verified Ax account. 1) Their real names would only be viewable by other verified Ax members. 2) By registering, they would be consenting to publishing their real identity and country location to other verified Ax members. This is similar to a phone book listing, except a phone book listing provides much more information than a verified Ax account would. A person`s agreement with a phone book company to have their name, phone and address published is far more dangerous than a verified Ax account.