1994: An article by John Dvorak in PC Computing magazine described a bill going through Congress that would make it illegal to use the internet while drunk, or to discuss sexual matters over a public network. The bill was supposedly numbered 040194 (i.e. 04/01/94), and the contact person was listed as Lirpa Sloof (April Fools backwards). The article said that the FBI was going to use the bill to tap the phone line of anyone who "uses or abuses alcohol" while accessing the internet. Passage of the bill was felt to be certain because "Who wants to come out and support drunkenness and computer sex?" The article offered this explanation for the origin of the bill: "The moniker 'Information Highway' itself seems to be responsible for SB 040194... I know how silly this sounds, but Congress apparently thinks being drunk on a highway is bad no matter what kind of highway it is." The article generated so many outraged phone calls to Congress that Senator Edward Kennedy's office had to release an official denial of the rumor that he was a sponsor of the bill.
This was my favorite prank... In college, we put an inordinate amount of time in researching pranks. My friend read about this once in a journalism class, and he and I decided to get one of our housemates. The original friend was work study in the campus police office, so he got a couple officers to help us out. Two officers knocked on my housemate's door, and told him they were arresting him for using the Internet while intoxicated (an IWI), or "Drunk driving on the information highway." My friend thought it was ridiculous, and started talking back to the officers, until they pulled out the April Fool's magazine article saying it was now illegal. After he saw the article he started panicking and talking really fast. One of the officers, perhaps the quickest on his feet police officer I've ever known, started listing off the offenses my friend was committing while he talked back, including "insubordination" and "disobeying a police officer"... He got to "resisting arrest" before my friend just collapsed into his chair, convinced his college career was over. He just offered up his hands and said "Alright, cuff me." At that point my friend and I burst into the room, dying laughing, and the cops started laughing too. It worked better then we could have hoped for. If I ever meet John Dvorak of PC Computing Magazine, I'm buying him a beer.