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 ...
Barney Frank is a Freeper????????????????? :)
My name is not Ed Rollins.(as some loon(s) have said because I support Bachmann)
My name is Maxwell Smart.
Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here.
These people are out of control. Hey I really am Mickey C. Mouse.
ridiculous, that would be the end of the Democrat Party.
Oh wait, they’ll exempt themselves.
...but they oppose voter ID because???
To think they are worried about children eating junk food when the children may not have a home.They are worried about field freaking mice and no one can afford to go to the grocery store.They are worried about bullies and gay kids getting picked on but who cares if they’re mommies have no jobs.They are insane.And I really am Maxwell Smart.
This is about giving private and often liberal corporations such as Google and Facebook the autonomous right to determine what is criminal.
The corrupt oxymoron of a Dept of Justice wants to criminalize using a pseudo name on the internet while allowing Mexican imposters to freely come into the USA using false IDs. Nice job Obama, who is bought and owned by these liberal hacks that want to take our firearms and steal our rights while bringing in the third world to our back yard.
My name is :
...I have a feeling a broad law to make terms of service violations illegal would only introduce more problems than it solves.
Really, Jared? That's putting it mildly.
The posted article is all about Holder's (In)Justice Department trying to gain more government control over the public opinions, social and political, of all Americans who use the Internet to express them. This is nothing more than a technically advanced form of Orwell's Thought Police.
Any government official who can even propose this is a tyrant! Hopefully, Holder (and Obama, who appointed him and whom he protects) will be out of office ASAP.
I found this hard to believe, but there it was.
Well this will help the SEIU track us all down.....
I'll go second. My real name is "Runs With Scissors."
Mr. Gargoyle X, esquire.
Try Barry.
So whats next, outlaw Tor users? Freenet? Usenet VPN accounts?
Seems they have way too much time (and our money) on their hands.
But remember what Vladimir said: “Truth is that which serves the greater truth of the revolution.” Make way for the vanguard of the masses from the Socialist Lurkers’ Party!
I’m Jim Thompson...
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