Posted on 11/16/2011 2:57:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Using a pseudonym on Facebook or fibbing about your age on a dating site could be illegal if the U.S. Department of Justice has its way.
The DOJ is going to Congress today to argue that Web sites' terms of service policies should be enforceable by law, according to CNet. For that purpose, the department seeks an expansion of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a 25-year-old law that mainly deals with hacking, password trafficking, and threatening to damage a computer.
By outlawing terms of service violations, the department would have an easier time prosecuting cyberbullies such as Lori Drew, a 49-year-old woman who involved in a case where a 13-year-old girl committed suicide after interacting with a fake MySpace profile that Drew was involved with. Prosecutors got a conviction against Drew in 2008 for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but the case was thrown out by a U.S. District Court judge.
"It basically leaves it up to a website owner to determine what is a crime," U.S. District Judge George Wu said of his verdict in 2009. "And therefore it criminalizes what would be a breach of contract."
That's exactly what the Department of Justice is trying to do now, through Congress
Is the Solution Too Broad?
The department's heart is in the right place, of course, but as groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation pointed out in an August 2011 letter to the Judiciary Committee, outlawing terms of service violations is an overly broad way to solve the problem. In addition to snaring cyberbullies, it would also criminalize harmless fibs such as using a fake name on Facebook to protect privacy. It would also force people to digest needlessly long terms of service policies for online services,
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
Are you kidding me? You can lie about being a war hero and having a MoH but you can't say you are a good looking guy?
.
He knows
He and his writers just make up outrageous claims and numbers and he spouts them out -
‘THEY want your children to breathe dirty air and drink polluted water.....’
- and many of the great unwashed (OWS) and more believe him and worship him
.....fading
.
I’m tired too and I never replied to my daughter’s email!
My name is Mike Hunt.
Just what America needs...more laws.
This could easily have a chilling effect on speech. Defamation is still defamation and can be pursued. It’s an unnecessary law, but lawyers need them to make $$$.
Thanks for the ping!
Is this the same Dept. of Justice that AG Eric Holder oversees? Trying to tell ANY of the American People not to lie?!
In a pigs eye. When he tells the truth about Gun Runner/Fast & Furious, about the Black Panthers, about why he won’t try Muslims, etc. etc. — THEN I might CONSIDER even LISTENING to anything he has to say about stuff like this.
We’d be far better off without a DOJ and without a Congress that makes these absurd laws. If they never made another law there would be no loss.
If you thought that the Patriot Act was invasive, this law that criminalizes a citizen from not following a corporate term of service is a outrage to freedom and liberty. If you think TSA and airlines have become authoritative, wait until Facebook finds out you have a false name. They will prosecute citizens for this, but do nothing when some business hires illegal pirated citizens (illegal aliens) with false documents, or when our personal data is recklessly lost by a VISA Card data provider or by your doctors office. A physician office just contacted me to tell me that a computer with my patient data on it and of many others was accidentally discarded, but yet it becomes my problem and expense if my ID is stolen.
This is my real name! I was named for my Grandmother.
Seriously, the only place where free speech really lives anymore is on the Internet and that is starting to upset them.
PC has killed free speech everywhere else.
You nailed it. The political over-class sees candid speech from the huddled masses as a threat to their omnipotent power, just as they see the 2nd Amendment.
Funny how everything they do supposes we are all criminals, and they just need more tools to catch us. They are tyrants with smiles.
Speak with the average Obama voter though and they call republicans stupid, tea party racists and neutered presidents like the Bushes dangerous to freedom. Yet they will gladly give up their free speech if it means shutting you up.
This will also work in reverse, with forums’ internal rules enforcement. Will we have judicial review of zotting?
Yeah yeah, that’s the ticket.
Yes your right on both counts.
As great as talk radio is, it is basically a one to many format. The Internet is a many to many relationship. Not only are people freely speaking their opinions, but we are comparing notes and figuring things out at a rapid pace.
RE: Will we have judicial review of zotting?
I believe there will be a demand for equal opinion representation in forums.
” I am Jim Thompson! “
I suspected as much.... : )
You mean Obama has to post his REAL BC online ?
I am Brian, and so is my wife. </MontyPython>
Equal representation on lib talk shows:
Segment opens with Libtard commentator, who waxes expansive, even poetic in his eloquence. Segment closes with conservative commentator, who starts to speak, but then there’s a commercial break.
Equal representation on Freep:
Libtard: I know you are but what am I?
Freeper: Libtard.
Libtard: Conservitard.
Freeper: That’s oxymoronic.
Libtard: What kind of a moron did you call me?
Back.
Forth.
Back.
Forth.
Lawyer arrives at Jim Robinson’s home with injunction that Freeper in this exchange be zotted. On date of hearing, libtard judge makes injunction final. Robinson appeals. Lawyer comes with big bill. Freepathon is still trying to catch up with last quarter, since donations are way down since equal representation was mandated. Freep goes bankrupt. Libtards everywhere celebrate.
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