"Classy Green-eyed blond" was already taken.
Posted on 09/22/2012 8:50:15 AM PDT by dirtboy
HARRISBURG — Offending someone online isn’t a crime, but proposed legislation in Pennsylvania would penalize people who take it too far.
Next week, House Judiciary Committee representatives are scheduled to discuss House Bill 2249, which makes it a misdemeanor to impersonate someone online. But the bill has stirred up free speech debates for its potential chilling effect on online communication — or on pranksters.
Now, the bill’s sponsor says specific changes will ensure people who are joking with friends, or exercising First Amendment rights, won’t be prosecuted.
The sponsor, state Rep. Katharine Watson, R-Bucks, said the bill is targeted toward giving law enforcement a way to penalize online bullying.
The law would make it a crime to impersonate someone online through a social media account like Facebook or Twitter, or through a fake email address or text message.
(Excerpt) Read more at paindependent.com ...
Let me get this straight: You can claim to be a war hero who won more medals than Audie Murphy but you can’t post a fake Facebook profile?
we don't need or want their opinions
There goes my redhighheelsblackpartydressonwednesdays account
...proposed legislation in Pennsylvania... House Bill 2249, which makes it a misdemeanor to impersonate someone online... The sponsor, state Rep. Katharine Watson, R-Bucks, said the bill is targeted toward giving law enforcement a way to penalize online bullying.I'll be happy to impersonate hundreds of Pennsylvania voters if anyone needs signatures for petitions for a recall to remove that 'hole from office.
Please ping the PA list when you get a chance, thanks!
Oh, what the heck, let’s just throw the Constitution in the trash.
I'm not seeing anything in that article that would point to that. Looks like its intent is to go after people setting up fake accounts to impersonate others and destroy their reputations...this likely is already a tort but apparently they want to make this also subject to criminal penalties.
That said...this kind of a law would have to be fine tuned...VERY fine tuned...to avoid a slippery slope issue of internet intrusion beyond the scope of the stated intent of this bill...might be best to just leave this a tort and allow for civil penalties.
most of the Federalist Papers were originally published under pseudonyms.
IMHO..this legislation and this...are strategically linked by First Amendment opponents in the present administration...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2932745/posts
Katharine you ignorant slut . . . < /Dan Akroyd voice>
Clearly this woman doesn’t understand what the words “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech” mean.
Anyone with an ounce of knowledge about pre-Revolutionary America, and all the anonymous pamphleteers, would not have proposed this idiot bill.
It seems the gist of the law isn’t really ‘fake’ profiles but impersonating someone. Almost like online identity theft.
Oh good. So now they can clap Obama in irons for his facebook false-persona generator ;)
The best way for the government to stop online bullying is for the government to stop bullying people online.
Just one more point in the ever growing list of reasons not to use FB.
However, it would leave the door open for prosecutorial mischief, IMO - going after anonymous comments on MSM websites that a politician doesn't like, for example.
Too often, application of a law such as this one goes well beyond the original intent of who created it.
Exactly - we would never have heard from Publius, Cato and Brutus.
Let me guess: there is an exception crafted to allow government psyops to continue doing exactly this, in furtherance of their agenda against the freedoms of US citizens. (For example, to harass whistleblowers.)
You didn’t bother to read the article before posting it?
Go ahead and lie about what you are going to do when elected, but go directly to jail when you don't.
The current generation has no idea what bullying is. They are just a bunch of bedwetting crybabies.
Pretty soon it will be illegal to not be on FB.
FB = An eighth commandment-free zone dominated by codependent narcissists and voyeurs.
Only gays can be bullied these days, don’cha know?
Uh, yes, I read the entire article, jerk.
so... i can vote without any proof of id but if i create a facebook page using an online alias i go to jail?
yea... facebook isn’t today’s fbi file
All this proves is that the Government wants to use facebook to track the masses . . .
The only reason the Internet and PC's created such a huge boom in the 80's and 90's was because government didn't understand what was happening and couldn't figure out how to regulate and tax it. This is why I don't hold out much hope for the prophesied GNR (genetics-nanotechnology-robotics) boom toward the end of this decade. US regulatory agencies now overwhelming in their scope and power, and are ready to pounce on any commercial trend that looks like it might become profitable.
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I hate it when - R s act like - D s.
The article refers to impersonating someone else. That is just an extension of existing laws. An alias, moniker or pen name is entirely different than presenting oneself as another person.
Heh. Nice catch!
Heh. Nice catch!
But no, they'd rather word on more RETRICTIONS on our freedom than RETURNING our freedom. It makes me wonder why I even vote...
My guess is that there would have to be some kind of crime “at the end of the day” in any of these cases. This is why the Stolen Valor Act was (rightfully) overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, by the way. Impersonating someone just for the sake of impersonating them can’t be criminalized and can’t really even be subject to legal action in civil court, but if the impersonator somehow uses the act of impersonation to do harm to others or defraud them in any way, then it would be subject to criminal prosecution or civil liability under existing statutes related to fraud or other torts.
“The best way for the government to stop online bullying is for the government to stop bullying people online.”
I don’t understand online bullying. Turn off the PC; end of problem. (Alternatively, hit delete or block the bully.) Am I missing something?
You are a 14 year old Girl. A click of girls who dislike you take a picture of you that is unflattering (the possibilities are endless on exactly what that would be.) Then its passed on Facebook and Twitter and media messages between phones. Next day at school everyone points and laughs and ridicules you for whatever social gaffe has been deemed offensive by the click.
You may think this a minor matter but in the social climate of teenagers this is akin to a restaurant being shutdown for cockroaches and rats.
Sad, but true.
Pennsylvania is incapable of fine-tuning anything.
I know...I live there.
PS...
Corbett is a fascist who thinks entrapment is a good way to enforce the law.
Oh please..
Moan moan, whine whine.
Rights are more important than the self-esteem of bimbos in friggin’ high school.
Kids will learn to deal with this and tough it out like they always have...for centuries.
I could give a crap about somebody’s feelings.
"Classy Green-eyed blond" was already taken.
Number one, wasn't talking about rights. was talking about "what is." He asked if he was missing something and I showed him.
He said turn off the computer, but that is not where it ends. The speed of the internet can give power to those who wish to harass someone well beyond what was possible just 15 years ago.
I never claimed it should be legislated against I just pointed it out its more complicated than just turning off the computer because its not the computer its the speed and the ability to disseminate harassment via Social Networks and cellular communications.
Kids have committed suicide over these attacks via Social Networks. Its a real problem and your dismissal of the issue isn't a solution its just ignorance on your part.
We have libel and slander laws for just these reasons. No need for additional legislation just just use the libel and slander laws already on the books.
“Rep. Katharine Watson, R-Bucks”
With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats?
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