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Thursday, July 9. 2009

I hate, hate, hate anybody who would sponsor or support federal criminal legislation with language like this in it:

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Just consider what that could entail: in effect, it could make bad internet manners a felony. Atlas has the story.

Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 19:19 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

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Well, most of the press releases from the current White House fall into that category for me.

#1 Taxpayer on 2009-07-09 20:31 (Reply)

They forgot flag burning.

#2 rhhardin (Link) on 2009-07-09 21:31 (Reply)

Barrister ... Is this a proposed crazy law written by crazies, or has it already been passed into law?

If so, we're probably all going to be arrested, even though, from our point of view, we're just trying to reason with people.

Marianne

#3 Marianne Matthews on 2009-07-09 23:14 (Reply)

I hate, hate, hate anybody who would sponsor or support federal criminal legislation with language like this in it

In other words, you support the right of anyone to use a false identity and malicious lies to intentionally:

> get a person fired
> destroy a person's reputation, marriage, credit rating...
> completely ruin a person's life
> drive a person to suicide

as long as it's done on the Internet?

#4 wolfwalker on 2009-07-10 07:09 (Reply)

Ever heard of defamation/slander laws, wolfwalker? They've worked pretty well for 100s of years in addressing this.

#4.1 Captain Obvious on 2009-07-10 09:31 (Reply)

Marianne, it was written by congresscritters.

Draw your own conclusions as to whether that means it was written by crazies. Me stating so would probably be a violation of the law.

It's AFAIK not adopted yet, but with a solid communist majority in both houses and intended to curb conservative blogs and websites by making their content (which is after all disturbing to leftists like the truth always is), draw your own conclusions about how long it will take to get it signed by The One.

#5 J.T. Wenting on 2009-07-10 09:41 (Reply)

Yes, I have. And they haven't worked very well that I've noticed. They certainly didn't help in the recent case of the girl driven to suicide by a cruel internet practical joke. The orcs that committed that walked away scot-free.

Anyway, slander and libel are civil actions, not criminal. Some types of conduct are so vile and perverted that they deserve criminal penalties.

#6 wolfwalker on 2009-07-10 11:31 (Reply)

QUOTE They certainly didn't help in the recent case of the girl driven to suicide by a cruel internet practical joke. The orcs that committed that walked away scot-free.:

The people you're talking about were neighbors, right? This bill probably wouldn't have provided recourse in that case unless they consider cross-street IMs or the like to be interstate commerce.

#6.1 Arcs on 2009-07-10 13:55 (Reply)

The critical factors in the Megan Meier case were 1) she was a minor and 2) the perpetrator misidentified herself as someone she definitely was not. Where in this bill, created in her name, are these two critical factors mentioned? Please explain why such a sweeping attack on the first amendment should be applied to anyone using electronic media?

#6.2 KRW on 2009-07-10 19:34 (Reply)

Two years ain't much for exercising God given right.

#7 Leag on 2009-07-10 12:37 (Reply)

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Thursday, July 9. 2009

My hate speech