New Federal law regarding the internet...Pretty Crazy...

[Paper Carnival]

Wait, wait. Does this mean... no more Maddox? :o

[DGMacphee]

Think of the reverse: consider the amount of anonymous hatemail HE gets.

[ildu]

Wait, wait. Does this mean... no more Maddox? :o

I guess he can appeal to the First Amendment like Annoy.com if he's ever sued. Or he can move to Canada.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

All you really need to do is say, "My real name is ______", and the law can't hurt you.  It's a stupid and should be ignored.

The biggest fluke behind this law is the assumption that the world has to be made a nice place, with no harm, conflict and pain whatsoever. And attempts to make it match this ideal are turning it into prison.

The biggist fluke behind this law is that there's not a damn thing the government's going to be able to do about it, regardless of how they feel about harm conflict pain ect.  But it's not like they're making the world into a communism, or adding drugs to our water supply.  It's just a stupid law, one the president (weather or not you think he's an assclown) saw and thought "Meh, why not?" and signed it.

But really, what are the people going to do?  Print out an AIM conversation, or check internet databases?  It's just plain old fashioned bullplop.

EDIT:  Please, for the love of god, no pictures of an actual bush-ass-clown.  Really.

[Barbarian]

EDIT:Ã,  Please, for the love of god, no pictures of an actual bush-ass-clown.Ã,  Really.

"Liberals annoy me, my precious!"


Ã,  Ã, Heheh, sorry, couldn't resist!Ã, 

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

Better than what could have been expected. 

[JRock]

oh sh#t.....i'm going to jail   :'(

[RickJ]

I haven't read the law myself but the commentary in the link below has cited a couple relevant sections that appear to specifically exempt intgeractive computerservices or software such as message boards and online interactive games.   

http://news.com.com/5208-1028-0.html?forumID=1hreadID=12943&messageID=101619&start=132

It appears that the law was intended for one on one communications such as phone calls, instant messaging, and e-mail.  I don't have a problem outlawing the anomuity of the originator in such cases.   If this would have been in affect since the beginning of the internet spam would have never ever become the huge problem it is.

[Phemar]

Mike Marlowe fully admits that he sometimes gave George Gillespie a hard time in that AOL chatroom.

But never in his wildest imagination did he expect to be sued in court for what he characterized as "razzing."

"We gave him crap," said Marlowe, a 33-year-old welder in Fayette, Ala. "I'm not going to deny it. I teased him and he teased me back. He gave it back better than he ever got it."

A generation ago, such petty personal beefs might have been settled with fists outside the corner bar, but now it's the Internet age â€" and Ohio resident George Gillespie instead filed a $25,000 lawsuit against two erstwhile cyber chums he met in the sprawling 900-room, mostly anonymous society that makes up AOL's chat universe.

Gillespie, 53, claims that Marlowe and Bob Charpentier, a 52-year-old Oregon resident, insulted him and harassed him in the AOL chatroom called "Romance â€" Older Men" to the point where it inflicted "severe emotional distress and physical injury that is of a nature no reasonable man could be expected to endure it."

The complaint, expected in court on Jan. 31 for a pretrial conference, also names AOL as a defendant for allowing the alleged harassment to take place.

Gillespie alleges that the duo intruded into his "private affairs." The complaint states that Marlowe actually drove from Alabama to Ohio to photograph the plaintiff's home, which he then posted on the Web. He also allegedly went to the courthouse in Medina to dig up personal dirt on Gillespie, which he then also disseminated over the Internet.

The case is not simply "someone conversing in a chatroom" but also involves "harassing someone in Ohio," which gives Ohio courts jurisdiction, according to Gillespie's lawyers.

"Had the defendants stayed in the chatrooms, there would be no jurisdiction here, case closed" Gillespie's attorney Theodore Lesiak stated in the complaint. "Defendant did not."

But Marlowe said he works 60 hours a week at an autobody shop and laughed at the notion that he would drive from Alabama to Ohio to take pictures of Gillespie's house.

"I have never been to Ohio and I have absolutely no desire to go to Ohio," Marlowe said. "There is nothing there â€" the Cincinnati Bengals are there, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame maybe, and that's about it."

Even if Marlowe did take a trip to Ohio, posting a picture of someone's house on the Internet does not violate privacy laws, according to Chris Hoofnagle, attorney with the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"Those norms require the aggressor to engage in behavior that is highly offensive to a reasonable person," he said. "Taking a picture of somebody's house and putting it up on the Web is not that."

Hoofnagle said Gillespie's emotional distress claim will also be tough to prove.

"We live in a rough society, as compared to Europe, where offending someone or directly cursing or attacking their dignity can give you a cause of action," he said.

Power Struggle in 'Romance â€" Older Men'

Charpentier said he first encountered Gillespie more than five years ago and at first, the two chatters were friendly. But Charpentier says he quickly became disenchanted by what he saw as Gillespie's mean streak.

Things really turned ugly four years ago when Charpentier traveled to Kentucky to meet another chatroom regular, a woman who was also a friend of Gillespie's. The blind date did not go particularly well, and when Charpentier returned to he discovered that Gillespie had gone on the attack.

"He just came in slamming on me, saying all kinds of derogatory crap: that I was a fat, bald, broke old man who sits around in a rusted wheelchair," said Charpentier, who has a chronic back injury. "I don't even own a wheelchair."

Charpentier, who has filed a response seeking to reserve the right to file a $125,000 countersuit against Gillespie, said Gillespie threatened to kill him and "made sick and disgusting remarks about the passing of my grandmother."

"He is an AOL computer thug, that is all he is," Charpentier said.

Marlowe characterized the dispute as a petty power struggle. He said Gillespie was the de facto leader of the "Romance â€" Older Men" chatroom, and didn't like it when he and Charpentier challenged his authority.

But Marlowe said he never took the chatroom antics personally â€" until he was served with a lawsuit.

"I don't know how four years of bantering back and forth led to this insane nonsense," he said. "It's just the Internet, for God's sake. It's nothing important."

Michael Gordon, an attorney for AOL, declined to comment, saying, "This is just the beginning stages of this thing."

Megan Gray, a Washington D.C.-based intellectual property attorney who specializes in cyber issues, called it "a loser of a case." She said the Communications Decency Act gives AOL immunity from chatroom misconduct.

"AOL cannot be held liable for the actions of people on the site," she said.

She also suggested the case against Marlowe and Charpentier was doomed.

"The Internet is such a vibrant, young medium, these types of cases are not taken seriously," she said.

Just found this ...

[ildu]

Horrible. I'd probably get capital punishment for all the 'derogatory crap' I've said during my years. This raises a concern, though. People in America! Stop making photoshop caricatures of pictures found online, at least unanonymously. There may be a lawsuit just around the corner . This must be the next step in the struggle against online misdemeanor.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

People in America! Stop making photoshop caricatures of pictures found online, at least unanonymously.

Or just put your signature on the bottom of the image...

[lo_res_man]

  but DGMacphee, how do you define stalk on the internet? harrass has a relitivly usefull definition, annoy is completly useless. but how do you stalk someone on the 'net?  just had to ask

[DGMacphee]

Tell me your e-mail address and I'll show you.

[lo_res_man]

Tell me your e-mail address and I'll show you.

HUH?! what zat mean? is it a) a joke. ment to be creepy but funny. or b) you really want my e-mail address. or z)just darn creepy.

[Gilbert]

All of the above.

[jfritzyb]

"With intent" is important. It's not illegal to "create an annoyance," it's illegal to *try* to pester people.

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ROFL!

(I just about had myself convinced on the last one--how about you?)Ã, 

--JJ

[MarVelo]

I am going to sue every person on EVERY forum ever because they have all enoyed me at one time or another.


Btw: dont they realize that all the spammers are from Nigeria so it doesnt effect them?

[DGMacphee]

Sorry to enoy you. It won't happen again.

[RickJ]

Mike Marlowe fully admits that he sometimes gave George Gillespie a hard time in that AOL chatroom.

But never in his wildest imagination did he expect to be sued in court for what he characterized as "razzing." ...

IMHO, this lawsuit will not survive for very long.   My prediction is that eventually the new  law will be interpreted to apply to one on one communications initiated by one person and sent specifically to another person.   A chat room is more like the public square than a one on one communication (as in phone call). 

It's been said that the freedom of speech does not include the right to be heard.   In the case of the public square one need not listen and just walk away from the crazy guy standing on a crate with a tin foil hat.   Repeatedly calling someone on the phone or sending e-mails is akin to the crazy guy following you around where ever you go and continously ranting about whatever.   

I think the court system will be able to sort this thing out fairly easily.