We're all going to jail

[forgeforsaken]

Phone harrasment laws extended to anonymous internet trolling (http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022491.html)

[Ben Sones]

It will either never be enforced, or will be striken down as unconstitutional. It's a clearly ridiculous law.

[Troy S Goodfellow]

It will either never be enforced, or will be striken down as unconstitutional. It's a clearly ridiculous law.

Stop annoying Congress.

Troy

[MatthewF]

This thread annoys me.

[Rob Beschizza]

I like that it's called the Violence Against Women act.

Act names have started to move from smarmy political newspeak to outright incomprehensibility.

[MikeJ]

Buried deep in the new law is Sec. 113, an innocuously titled bit called "Preventing Cyberstalking." It rewrites existing telephone harassment law to prohibit anyone from using the Internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy."

To grease the rails for this idea, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and the section's other sponsors slipped it into an unrelated, must-pass bill to fund the Department of Justice. The plan: to make it politically infeasible for politicians to oppose the measure.

Is there no mechanism that could be adopted to prevent this type of tactic? It seems to make a mockery of the whole process. On par with gerrymandering.

[Jason McMaster]

I think Huffman just shit his pants. Alternately I think Derek probably just fainted out of sheer glee

[Midnight Son]

Oooh! I'm suing you and you and you and you and you and especially you! Nyah!

[chet]

I think Huffman just shit his pants. Alternately I think Derek probably just fainted out of sheer glee

Except Huffman says he is Huffman. The wording of the whole thing is just bizarre.

[Jason McMaster]

Except Huffman says he is Huffman. The wording of the whole thing is just bizarre.

True. It sounds like you can harrass anyone you want all day long as long as you tell them who you are. Otherwise, you're screwed.

I'll go ahead and bet that Huffman has messed with Derek under an assumed name before.

[Charles]

So I'm except because I'm not anonymous? Rock on! Fuck all y'all!

[Bill Dungsroman]

Oooh! I'm suing you and you and you and you and you and especially you! Nyah!

See you in the gallows, motherfucker.

[Midnight Son]

See you in the gallows, motherfucker.

How is your mom, son?

[Ben Sones]

Stop annoying Congress.

Troy

Makes no difference--I post under my real name. So Congress can blow me.

:)

[extarbags]

They should have called this thing the "Mach Five Get His Revenge Act."

[wisefool]

Is there no mechanism that could be adopted to prevent this type of tactic? It seems to make a mockery of the whole process. On par with gerrymandering.

They are called 'riders', and apparently they are a very, very common process. Most acts of congress are passed with unrelated riders. They only call them riders when some political opponent is upset and wants to make a deal out of it.

[Aikes]

Too bad this isn't a joke. I hate to see old fart politicians involve themselves with the internet or anything PC. Al Gore I thought was the weirdest, he invented the internet... yea right. Now Bush steps in with his all seeing wisdom and lays down the law /sigh.

Freedom of speech is the most powerful tool a free people can have to protect itself from bad leadership and mistreatment. Wonder what monumental mind decided this was a good document to get the President to sign, who put it together, etc.

More then likely, or at least I would hope, someone thought it was a good thing to help protect the weak and not something created to limit free speech.

[Rob Beschizza]

Al Gore I thought was the weirdest, he invented the internet... yea right.

See, this is the kind of thing that leads people to accuse people of being trolls. Everyone knows this was BS, and everyone knows that everyone knows it (http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp). So why say it, if not to generate noise?

[extarbags]

Too bad this isn't a joke. I hate to see old fart politicians involve themselves with the internet or anything PC. Al Gore I thought was the weirdest, he invented the internet... yea right. Now Bush steps in with his all seeing wisdom and lays down the law /sigh.

Freedom of speech is the most powerful tool a free people can have to protect itself from bad leadership and mistreatment. Wonder what monumental mind decided this was a good document to get the President to sign, who put it together, etc.

More then likely, or at least I would hope, someone thought it was a good thing to help protect the weak and not something created to limit free speech.

Maybe this law isn't such a bad idea after all.

[Lizard_King]

Everyone knows this was BS
Actually, that is a pretty successful spin, as far as they go. Still not true, but hardly Holocaust denial.

How is your mom, son?
That made this whole thread worth it. Well, apart from the oh-now-there's-a-troll-I-could-part-with nonsense that I knew Aikes' appearance would inspire. It's proof positive that once you are typecast even being 90% in agreement with the consensus is never enough to avoid attacks.

Then again, who is really going to defend this move? Arlen Specter is a pretty despised politician on both sides of the table...I fail to understand his appeal.

[MikeJ]

They are called 'riders', and apparently they are a very, very common process. Most acts of congress are passed with unrelated riders. They only call them riders when some political opponent is upset and wants to make a deal out of it.

I'm aware that the practice is very common, but I think it reflects a basic lack of integrity on the part of the representatives. Someone who exploits some broken game mechanic in order to win isn't interested in the challenge of the game itself. Similarly, the politicos who game the system in order to get junk like this on the books aren't concerned that the laws of the land actually reflect the considered opinions of the people's representatives.

Unlike in a game, however, manuevers like this have real consequences. It undermines the basis for respect for the law. It obfuscates the actions of the lawmakers, making it harder for the voters to understand what their representatives are doing. This in turn encourages more deceit and lack of integrity among the representatives.

Maybe it's naive to think that changing the mechanics of the system can keep people from exploiting it, but certainly some systems must be more open to abuse than others. This practice of gluing together totally separate issues offends me. Maybe I'm too much of an engineer to ever understand politics.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Actually, that is a pretty successful spin, as far as they go. Still not true, but hardly Holocaust denial.

That made this whole thread worth it. Well, apart from the oh-now-there's-a-troll-I-could-part-with nonsense that I knew Aikes' appearance would inspire. It's proof positive that once you are typecast even being 90% in agreement with the consensus is never enough to avoid attacks.
Whoa there LK, don't mess yourself high-fiving...yourself. At least, not so much right after a Godwin-by-proxy ref.

[shift6]

Remember kids, even though it was approved by voice in the Senate and unanimously in the House, we're gonna put the onus on BUSH to enforce it or not since he had the gall to sign it into law.

This post made by pseudonymous shift6 specifically to annoy you mofos.

[Chris Nahr]

Bruce Schneier (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/01/anonymous_inter.html) forwards some legal clarifications...


The anonymous harassment provision is the old telephone-annoyance statute that has been on the books for decades. It was updated in the widely (and in many respects deservedly) ridiculed Communications Decency Act to include new technologies, and the cases make clear its applicability to Internet communications. See, e.g., ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824, 829 n.5 (E.D. Pa. 1996), aff'd, 521 U.S. 824 (1997). Unlike the indecency provisions of the CDA, this scope update was not invalidated in the courts and remains fully effective.

In other words, the latest amendment, which supposedly adds Internet communications devices to the scope of the law, is meaningless surplusage.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

This post made by pseudonymous shift6 specifically to annoy you mofos.

Yeah, but anybody with access to the "Bananas and Nuts" picture can discover that your real name is voltaic.