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Crank Blogging, Like Phone Calling, Now Illegal
On Thursday, President Bush signed into law a must-pass
DoJ appropriations bill
which contained a
little gotcha for the internet.
For decades, making anonymous abusive phone calls has been a federal crime, good for up to two years behind bars -- and the term "abusive" has included threats, harassment, and the much weaker "intent to annoy." Now, that telecommunications law has been extended to include the Internet, so when you post an anonymous troll to wind up your least-favorite blogger, you may break the law. This is silly: the law needs to start taking into account the qualitative differences between things like telephones, email inboxes, blogs, and IM accounts. A 3 AM phone call is different from a post to blogger.com calling me a jerk. I don't need federal protection from that Night Elf who keeps /chickening my Orc.
President Bush sucks
-Sue Me.
My co-worker Steve is a real jerk.
Give me some mod points and we can find out!
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
to tell the submitter what an ass he is.
I'm gonna call the cops next time some night elf hunter kills my helpless warlock from shadowmeld :P
I came, I conquered, I coredumped
the HOME of flamers and trolls. ;-)
Soon the forums will be empty as we are all carted off to jail for smart ass comments given with the "intent to annoy".
We seldom regret saying too little but often regret saying too much.
"Intent to annoy"? Every sibling, spouse and co-worker in America could be charged under this clause!
My wife LIVES to annoy me! It is one of her main goals in life. I'm fairly certain each of my kids also has a primary purpose to annoy one or more of their siblings, their mother, all their teachers and many of the other kids at school. Frequently phones are involved.
-Charles
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I wonder if this can also be extended to address the annoying sexbots that post messages to my Yahoo Messenger...
I find this new policy annoying.
should come with a badge now.
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
Yes. Coming soon, the mod option will be "-1, Jail."
Dear FBI, I am annoyed by all the blantant downloading going on, which is obviously meant to annoy us... -- RIAA/MPAA
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
Wait, you mean those aren't my girlfriends?
only if you're an anonynomous coward ...
Anoying Anonymous Coward
^------- by Anonymous Coward, Ha!
Does this mean that we, in the rest of the world, can lay into you guys in the US and there's nothing you can do about it (anonymously)?
I will taunt you a second time!!!
Ha! Your country is really small and you all smell of pooh!
When you troll on Slashdot, you troll with Osama!
Check out ioquake3.org for a great, free, First-Person Shooter engine!
I'd like to see the first attempted prosecution under this new law.
>ALLIANCE SUCK
>HORDE SUCK
>ALLIANCE SUCK
>HORDE SUCK
>I'm calling the cops!
- Just my $0.02, take with a grain of salt, your mileage may vary.
Laws like this will, in the long run, make the freedom of speech stronger, not weaker.
However they will do nothing for the kamikazee use of the comma!
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
A real solution to those a**es who corpse camp you in WOW!!!
Thank you Bush, now I won't have to worry about my realm server being full any longer!
The terrorists is using the Internets!
And I almost forgot: What about the Children!!?!?!
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
I don't need federal protection from that Night Elf who keeps /chickening my Orc.
Reroll on a PvP server plzkthxbai.
Actually, they are. They seem oddly unsatisfied.
Well of course it won't be direct to jail, there will have to be a trial to determine if you are actually guilty, unless the executive branch has some sort of magical power to just throw people into jails without due process.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
Strikes me as moderately stupid. I mean, threats and all, sure. Harassment, ok, I guess. Though I believe there are already recourses for these problems (I could be mistaken).
But "intent to annoy"? Isn't that what the Internet is? A giant, collective, intent-to-annoy?
(Moreover, isn't that why there are things like selective blocking/allowing for IMs, for blogs, for e-mail?)
This won't affect me, however! When I call someone a jerk, it's never with the intent to annoy.
It's with the intent to inform!
where at least I know I'm free.
Heh... meanwhile, we also need a "-1: Missed Obvious Sarcasm" moderation.
Signature.
Oh, yeah, like that'd be helpful.
Well of course it won't be direct to jail...
No... but you still won't get your $200 for passing Go.
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
You fucking suck and I hope this annoys you.
(There's your first case, you can thank me later.)
(unless this gets modded funny...uh oh...)
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Not to be confused with +1, Jailbait.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
There are so many situations where I see this problem that I think that it would be useful.