Activity Stream
227,828 MEMBERS
1792 ONLINE
greengrassforums On YouTube Subscribe to our Newsletter greengrassforums On Twitter greengrassforums On Facebook greengrassforums On Google+
banner1

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 25
  1.     
    #1
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    y Declan McCullagh
    http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-anno...10-1028_3-6022
    491.html

    Story last modified Mon Jan 09 04:00:00 PST 2006

    Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

    It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a
    prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail
    messages without disclosing your true identity.

    In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog
    as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small
    favors, I guess.

    This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet,
    is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of
    Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and
    two years in prison.

    "The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv
    Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
    "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."

    It's illegal to annoy

    A new federal law states that when you annoy someone on the Internet,
    you must disclose your identity. Here's the relevant language.

    "Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to
    originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are
    transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing
    his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any
    person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title
    18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
    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.

    The tactic worked. The bill cleared the House of Representatives by
    voice vote, and the Senate unanimously approved it Dec. 16.

    There's an interesting side note. An earlier version that the House
    approved in September had radically different wording. It was
    reasonable by comparison, and criminalized only using an "interactive
    computer service" to cause someone "substantial emotional harm."

    That kind of prohibition might make sense. But why should merely
    annoying someone be illegal?

    There are perfectly legitimate reasons to set up a Web site or write
    something incendiary without telling everyone exactly who you are.

    Think about it: A woman fired by a manager who demanded sexual favors
    wants to blog about it without divulging her full name. An aspiring
    pundit hopes to set up the next Suck.com. A frustrated citizen wants to
    send e-mail describing corruption in local government without worrying
    about reprisals.

    In each of those three cases, someone's probably going to be annoyed.
    That's enough to make the action a crime. (The Justice Department won't
    file charges in every case, of course, but trusting prosecutorial
    discretion is hardly reassuring.)

    Clinton Fein, a San Francisco resident who runs the Annoy.com site,
    says a feature permitting visitors to send obnoxious and profane
    postcards through e-mail could be imperiled.

    "Who decides what's annoying? That's the ultimate question," Fein said.
    He added: "If you send an annoying message via the United States Post
    Office, do you have to reveal your identity?"

    Fein once sued to overturn part of the Communications Decency Act that
    outlawed transmitting indecent material "with intent to annoy." But the
    courts ruled the law applied only to obscene material, so Annoy.com
    didn't have to worry.

    "I'm certainly not going to close the site down," Fein said on Friday.
    "I would fight it on First Amendment grounds."

    He's right. Our esteemed politicians can't seem to grasp this simple
    point, but the First Amendment protects our right to write something
    that annoys someone else.

    It even shields our right to do it anonymously. U.S. Supreme Court
    Justice Clarence Thomas defended this principle magnificently in a 1995
    case involving an Ohio woman who was punished for distributing
    anonymous political pamphlets.

    Copyright ©1995-2006 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.


    so next time any of you call me a name your goin to jail!!!
    bedake Reviewed by bedake on . Flaming is illegal! y Declan McCullagh http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022 491.html Story last modified Mon Jan 09 04:00:00 PST 2006 Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail Rating: 5

  2.   Advertisements

  3.     
    #2
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    The link does not work. Not for me anyway...this is true? No clauses or amendments??
    [SIZE=\"2\"][/SIZE]

    If Tyranny & Oppression come to this land,it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

    James Madison 4th U.S. President (1751-1836)

  4.     
    #3
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    just type flaming illegal in google, yep its true

  5.     
    #4
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    you have annoyed me by telling me this.....

    the letters were also too small which annoyed me....

    i hate all internet using humans, all of them annoy me....

  6.     
    #5
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    lol exactly, just another dumb law down in the books

  7.     
    #6
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    Quote Originally Posted by bedake
    lol exactly, just another dumb law down in the books
    But it IS a law and can be used against U>S> citizens at will?! Wow. I don't think I can say any good about this. I try to love my country..still do but we are becoming dictators here.omg :smokin:
    [SIZE=\"2\"][/SIZE]

    If Tyranny & Oppression come to this land,it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

    James Madison 4th U.S. President (1751-1836)

  8.     
    #7
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    when i get to jail ill get me a sandwich.flame on
    Love is patient and kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. Love is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres

  9.     
    #8
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    Great. So now we can sue CNN journalists for flaming the Islam.

    Tonight on CNN: "OmGZzz u guyzz sukkk bearded bully wtf BoMBzz."

  10.     
    #9
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    This is one of those laws that it will be forever impossible to enforce on a large scale but will be used in court on a case-by-case basis to obtain convictions and harder sentences. It's also a direct attack on citizen supported news services (i.e blogs) which certainly impose a growing threat on commercial news services in the next few years. It's a shame these kind of tactics are tolerated by the public.

  11.     
    #10
    Senior Member

    Flaming is illegal!

    my dream is to jerk off and shoot my load through the white house fence onto the lawn... that would be so awesome it would be worth gettin in trouble for

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. Flaming lips!
    By justinsane in forum Music Room
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 08-25-2007, 05:14 AM
  2. LOL Flaming Hay Wagon
    By Dro_Princess in forum GreenGrassForums Lounge
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 07-22-2007, 04:32 PM
  3. Flaming Poll
    By minnesota man in forum GreenGrassForums Lounge
    Replies: 34
    Last Post: 06-16-2006, 12:20 AM
  4. Flaming cops.
    By Swizzy89304 in forum Feedback and Suggestions
    Replies: 24
    Last Post: 03-31-2006, 02:22 AM
  5. FlamingSkullBalls in all his flaming glory.
    By Satan666 in forum GreenGrassForums Lounge
    Replies: 25
    Last Post: 11-10-2005, 02:32 AM
Amount:

Enter a message for the receiver:
BE SOCIAL
GreenGrassForums On Facebook