EFF Sues to Block New Internet Sex-Offender Law

Bobfrankly1 writes "The EFF sued to block portions of the approved Prop 35 today. Prop 35 requires sex offenders (including indecent exposure and non-internet offenses) to provide all of their online aliases to law enforcement. This would include e-mail addresses, screen and user names, and other identifiers used on the internet. The heart of the matter as the EFF sees it, would be not only the chilling effect it would have on free speech, but also the propensity of these kind of laws to be applied to other (non-sex offending) people as well."

Comments

Sorry.. can't agree.

[Anonymous Coward]

Convicted sex offenders and potentially dangerous criminals should have absolutely no rights to privacy. I don't care what the EFF says, and I sure as hell don't care about destroying the lives of a few depraved and/or dangerous/psychotic people.

Re:Sorry.. can't agree.

[DavidClarkeHR]

2) if you view each one's offense, you'll find most (75%+) had "victims" 14 years old +. Some of those might have been "rapes", but were probably hooking up with someone they should have known better, but it was as consensual as any liaison (ignoring fact that a minor can't consent, but survey any high school and see how chaste your average teen is)

Laws are arbitrary standards relating to specific acts. When someone knowingly violates that standard - whether by a little or by a lot - they've broken the law. I might (might) be tempted to agree with you if you were arguing for a diminished sentence, or a finer gradation in sentencing.

It is a terrible idea to disregard the idea (or usefulness) of a sex offender registry simply because there are some type-1 "errors". And really - everyone convicted under the same law should be treated within the parameters of that law.

This will fail....

[Dan541]

Because sexual predators are such considerate, honest people; right?

#fail

This is fals issue

[hessian]

Our society places pedophiles in a special category because they compulsively attempt to lure children to them for purposes of illicit intergenerational sex.

It's not unreasonable for us to limit their access, or create more laws that they can be found in violation of.

After all, "the people" start screaming bloody murder when it turns out that the pedophile who killed 14-year-old honor student Jane lived just down the street, and there were warning signs, and yet the police could do nothing!

Instead of pretending that their rights are somehow linked to our own, let's accept that every society has an ultimate taboo and for us it's the child-rapists. The EFF is wasting their time fighting this symbolic non-issue while real issues pass on the breeze.

No, the EFF is wrong.

[DavidClarkeHR]

The whole sex offender system is useless without proper investigation or classification.

No, the sex offender system is a history of past actions. Regardless of cause, some actions are designated with a no-tolerance, no-exception policy. While you wouldn't want to wrongly group all offenders in the same category (just like not all manslaughter is murder), the end result is sufficiently detestable that reasons become less important than cause.

In this case, those actions were deemed adequately offensive to become public record, regardless of reasons. The proper time for investigation is at sentencing, not the time of reform.