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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."
Like they could ever enforce this...
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Sent from a registered sex offender
This law seems open to abuse. What rate limiting system does it use? I use a ton of different nicks in my line of work and I tend to change them multiple times per day.
4chan (pedo central) doesn't use usernames, accounts or aliases so they wouldn't be required to report it!
Username: Anonymous Coward
I think such an attitude makes you depraved, and possibly dangerous/psychotic.
In my state, "sex offenders" include people who have urinated in public, people who forgot to close the bathroom shades before getting out of the shower, and a great many teenagers who couldn't keep it in their pants. Are these the "depraved and psychotic people" whose lives you wish to destroy?
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Nowadays a lot of people are classified as sex offenders that shouldn't be, like teenagers that send each other naughty pictures, or somebody that texts a lewd message to the wrong recipient. These people barely meet the definition, yet are branded for life.
If the sex offender status could be assigned with accuracy, I think this proposition would be okay. But it isn't, so the proposition means people are going to get hurt who shouldn't have even been declared as sex offenders in the first place. The proposition compounds the challenges these people face.
And I agree with the EFF that it's a dangerous trend to set. If you want to take away the anonymity of some pervert, do it for a real criminal who posts a credible threat to the community. Many people with the sex offender status don't fit that definition at all.
https://www.aclunc.org/cases/active_cases/doe_v._harris.shtml
It's really not a good law - it won't accomplish its goal and it has lots of bad possible side effects.
Unconvicted people are potentially dangerous criminals and should have absolutely no rights to privacy. I don't care what the Constitution says, someone who peed in an alley once where nobody could see should have their lives destroyed. There could have been a school fieldtrip to that alley at 2 a.m. on a Saturday night and have accidentally seen a penis.
Learn to love Alaska
Never underestimate the willingness of unthinking cowards to try to take away the rights of others, especially if the believe it will never affect them.
Who defines potential? Personally, I find you potentially dangerous, and definatly psychotic.
Also, to what end do we allow Prop35? Many states not only don't distinguisy between juvinile and adult sex offenders, but also require longer then juvinile life (21st birthday in most states) registration requirements.
And if this passes, who's to say that in the near future, you will loose all anonymity for simply dis-agreeing with the powers that be.
No. This can not be allowed to happen.
"Convicted sex offender" is a very broad term that describes anyone who has been convicted of doing anything that might be construed as a sexual offense, even if the actual victim not only didn't complain, but was a willing participant.
What we really want to do is ensure that serial rapists cannot use the internet as their predatory jungle, and for this type of person I entirely agree with you. But I'd hate to ruin the life of some poor 20yo who fell in love with his sisters friend who happened to be 17, but whose parents decided to have him arrested.
People caught peeing in a bush are treated the same as child molesters under this law. It also includes people that in any way benefit from solicited sex, including the family of people willingly involved in the sex trade.
Violent offenders are already incarcerated, and those that have been released from prison after serving their time are still pretty closely monitored. This proposition sought to make a crime "more illegal" in order to increase the government's authority. The weasel-wording of the bill's description ("increase penalties for sex trafficking") allowed that to get through with an overwhelming majority; suffice to say, I'm not impressed.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I would encourage you to view one of the many sites out there that let you search public registries of sex offenders. (for example, http://familywatchdog.us/ For fun, enter your address. You'll find:
1) the number of sex offenders isn't a "few" (if you live in a metro area, there will be dozens in a 2 mile radius)
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)
Such sex offender laws apply to all of these (plus those who get caught urinating in public, having a romp with their spouse in public, etc); not a "few depraved and/or dangerous/psychotic people". But "think of the children!" How about a single DWI resulting in a lifetime ban on owning a motor vehicle, or a single drug conviction resulting in a lifetime 9pm curfew?
If someone is truly so sick and perverted that they need a lifetime of monitoring, then give them an adequate prison sentence.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
Same deal with the human trafficking sex offender registry.
You're trying to tell me a human trafficker who gets caught and was involved in sex offenses can't be tried for that seperately?
Seriously I'll accept a sex offender registry for persons who prey on children (I will put the cap at 16, although if we were being honest about this, 13 is the better standard for paedophilia. And if you look at the historic reason for raising the age of consent from 13 to 18 (ignoring the original AoC) you'd note that it was TO STOP 'UNDERAGE' PROSTITUTION, not for any actual sensible reason regarding a persons age of maturity or sexual development.) But honestly, applying it indefinitely to 'streakers' 'teenagers sexting their likewise underage partners' and 'public urinators' makes me embarassed to be an american.
If we can't try people based on the specific and necessary laws, then why don't be just repeal all laws and go back to 'at the judge's discretion'? I mean given the plethora of modern laws and the almost impossibility of not breaking one of them (nevermind in the case of sex offenses many people breaking ones that used to at most get you a night in jail or a few weeks community service: see fooling around in a park, car, your gf or bf's house, etc.) Hell, even just taking a picture of your kids running around in the buff (and how many of us didn't toss our diapers aside and streak naked across the house when guests were over? Y'know the sort of pictures your family take so they can embarass you when you bring your significant other over to meet the fams.)
The number of travesties being committed by our 'elected' officials on a daily basis makes me wonder what the point of elected officials even is anymore. At the current level of insanity nearly any form of government would not be any worse from a legal standpoint. And when looking at miscarriages of justice, we're right in the middle of the pack with dictators, monarchs, and oligarchies.
Any system can be corrupt or just given time and the right set of officials. But the problem with democracies (and republics!) is that it can take a much longer time to effect a shift, and perhaps even longer to find out if that shift is real or imagined.
First they came for the pedos,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a pedo.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the guys into fisting and DP sites,
and I was like... "at least it was fun while it lasted".
What is needed is a 3 Strikes law, where-after attempting to pass three insane draconian laws, such fiends are registered as civil-offenders and no longer permitted within 100' of a computer device. They should also be required for 10 years to kneel on all fours immediately (while humming the National Anthem) whenever a weary pedestrian needs a place to sit. Their only other option would be joining the French Foreign Legion, which of course would be the default option.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
I was so annoyed by that proposition when I read it on the ballot. It was two totally separate issues that should have been separate. I am all for increased punishments for those caught dealing with human trafficking but I'm not about to agree to the part at the end about sex offenders needing to explain their whole internet life. We take enough of their rights away as it is and not all of them are even guilty of a serious crime.
The real problem here isn't the increased loss of freedom for sex offenders. I personally could give a shit less about them. The real problem is the ever increasing creep of the term "Sex offender" Lets be clear, when you say "Sex offender" Most reasonable people would think that meant someone that had had some kind of sexual contact with a CHILD (not a teenager) or had committed actual physical rape. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people labeled as sex offenders by the courts these days are people that got busted when they were 19 for having a 16yr old girl/boyfriend... or were even the same age as their teenage partner but texted pictures of her boobs to their friends. Should they be punished for this stuff? Yes... labeled a sex offender for the rest of their lives? Fuck no. "statutory rape" is not fucking rape. Stop treating it like it is. It degrades the term "RAPE" and trivializes the true victims of this horrible crime. Should some 25yr old looser that nails a 16yr old at a party go to jail for it? YES... but rape? come on. There's plenty of grey area here, and I'm sure we could argue about a lot of it. But there's plenty that's not in a grey area, and destroying someones life over a stupid mistake they made when they were barely out of highschool is detrimental to everyone involved. Including the victim.
but survey any high school and see how chaste your average teen is
That strikes me as a good way to get invited to test out this new internet offender law...
There is over 100,000 registered sex offenders in California. Thats about 0.3%. That's higher than the entire USA, which is about 0.2%. 1 in 400 Americans are registered sex offenders.
...offenders are already incarcerated, and those that have been released from prison after serving their time are still pretty closely monitored
In my opinion, once a person has served their sentence, their criminal record should be sealed and not available to anyone, unless the person commits another criminal act, throughout their parole period, and after the successful completion of the period of parole the record should be expunged after 2 years. The whole criminal justice system seems intent upon punishing people for eternity; rather the focus should be rehabilitation and re-integration into society. If a convict is likely to re-offend maybe the person should never have been released from prison. From the moment of release from prison only the police should have access to the person's record but no background check for employment should reveal the existence of the record for all but a select few jobs (financial services, working with the vulnerable, position of trust which includes public office holders). Otherwise, society might as well tattoo a red 'C' on the forehead of the convicted. If a person commits another criminal act during their two-year probation period, they are not eligible for release from prison after the second conviction.
If they can not be trusted than keep them in prison, end of story. None of this bullshit about trying to turn the whole country into a prison. It'll be one crime after another, for the non-rich, until traffic offenders end up being monitored. If the crime warrants life time monitoring then keep them in prison for a lifetime where they belong.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
No, no it really doesn't. Many states, mine included don't display level one offenders.
Do you know how the level system works? Let me explain it to you.
Level 1: Usually (but not always) completed treatment successfully, as well as passing multiple polygraphs and plethysmograph exams.
Level 2: Moderate risk for re-offense.
Level 3: High risk for re-offense.
Some states even use civil commitment, and can hold an offender for an indefinite amount of time prior to release, well beyond what would be considered time severed.
As I'm writing this a thought just occurred to me. Prop 35 is a measure of civil commitment without actually doing so. Hmmm...
In any event, your notions of geeks clinging to fantasies of sex offenders are, frankly, repulsive. The recidivism rate among sex offenders is also nearly 1/4 of the standard recidivism rate of the criminal population as a whole.
...or at least create an unmanageable amount of work for the data-entry bureaucrats: Create a "catch-all" email address, i.e., [anything]@example.com goes to you. This is trivial to do with Postfix. Then make up a list of thousands---or millions---of email addresses @example.com and submit that to them. Making the list is of course trivial with a simple Perl script. Also ensure there are a few specific addresses at the example.com domain that go to someone else, such that the bureaucrats can't simply add "[anything]@example.com" to the registry. (If they do do that, they'd be adding the email address of an innocent third party, which could result in another interesting lawsuit all by itself.)
If any RSOs in California are interested in doing this, contact me (jraxis -@- jraxis.com). I'll set you up a catch-all at one of my domains and generate you a list of a few million random addresses at that domain.
Liberty in your lifetime
Victim (testifying in court): "Yes, your honor. I saw it. It was like a penis, only smaller."
Have gnu, will travel.
I am all for increased punishments for those caught dealing with human trafficking
Out of curiosity, why? Do you have some reason to believe the existing punishments are too lax? Were the changes enacted by the legislature recently insufficient?
I'm usually deeply disgusted by every CA proposition that seeks to increase punishments for some group, using an appeal to emotion to justify it. Are the existing punishments really not enough? Why hasn't the legislature done anything about it? Is this actually a rational approach to solve a real problem, or is it just a political move that's expected to be a slam dunk, because hey, who wants to come out in favor of sex traffickers?
I get the value of referenda and sometimes I'm proud that it works to accomplish something that the legislature can't or won't, but the tyranny of the majority is a very real threat, as is constitutional amendment via popularity contest, and sometimes I wonder if it shouldn't be harder for people to get their pet issues on the ballot like this.
And WILL SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
But the court order said I'm not supposed to think of the children any more.
Learn to love Alaska
It's not unreasonable for us to limit their access
Are you somehow of the belief that the only group harmed by these reporting requirements are "intergenerational" child rapists?
Do you think that someone that's on this registry that decides to seduce or rape a child is going to register the account they plan to use for that purpose with the police?
or create more laws that they can be found in violation of
Will we ever reach a point where we have enough laws or enough punishment for this class of criminal? If, every year, we enacted new, harsher punishments, and new laws that we can find these individuals in violation of, would we ever hit a point where you might decide it's time to stop? That's really the larger problem with propositions like this: who can come out against it without sounding like you're pro-child rape? Sometimes I hate how easy it is for people to get propositions on the California ballot.
And what if that second criminal act was stealing a bit of food to survive? As you point out a marked criminal will find it very difficult to exist in the normal world. Two and Three strikes laws need to be removed, to allow individual cases to be judged on their merits and only the most depraved locked away forever.
Read decision "Columbia Insurance Company v. Seescandy.com, et al." (1999) of the US District Court in the Northern District of California: "People are permitted to interact pseudonymously and anonymously with each other so long as those acts are not in violation of the law." http://legal.web.aol.com/aol/aolpol/seescandy.html It can't be presumed that they are going to break the law just because they are using the fictitious name and have some criminal history.
In the last few years, some major social media service providers have been pushing for "real names" policies. Most notably, Google has been doing this. This has been a big controversy with Google+. Google's plan with Google+ was to use it as the basis for an identity authentication system. Part of the privacy threat I see with Prop 35 is that social media services will use it as an excuse to enforce "real names" policies, claiming that it's just too difficult to check whether a pseudonym is a new alias for a registered sex offender, so no one should be allowed to use pseudonyms. That would be a significant blow to free speech on the Internet.
What we really want to do is ensure that serial rapists cannot use the internet as their predatory jungle
Why are serial rapists running free to begin with?
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
Our society places pedophiles in a special category because they compulsively attempt to lure children to them for purposes of illicit intergenerational sex.
Not all pedophiles are child molesters. I'm not even sure if the majority of them are.
It's not unreasonable for us to limit their access
I think it is to people who actually care about freedom of speech.
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.
I don't want to accept what I believe is illogical nonsense.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
I can think of two examples illustrating problems with such laws.
1. Urinating in public can, in 13 states, qualify as a sex offense, through charges such as "indecent exposure", etc. A few links mentioning this issue can be viewed here:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/02/sex-offender-registry-megans-law-forbes-woman-time-children.html
http://www.economist.com/node/14164614
https://downtownathens.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/public-urination-considered-sex-offense-in-georgia-not-enforced-by-police/
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-25-sex-offender-laws-cover_x.htm
2. Certain interactions with a prostitute can also qualify for sex offense.
Number 1 is certainly more common, and is something nearly any good beer-drinking mammal has been guilty of. Number 2, although less common, is rather questionable. Why questionable? Figure that out yourself. But if it is to be such a grievous offense in the the U.S., it would seem appropriate to prevent U.S. citizens from traveling to nations where such an atrocious offense is legal, such as Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey(?) and others. And certainly anyone doing business with such perverted nations should be registered and arrested as accomplices, because anyone with scruples would take the support of such offenses just as seriously as we take pissing on bushes here -- no dubya pun intended.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
At one time in the UK, it was legal for a man to urinate in public, so long as it occurred on the rear wheel of his vehicle and he had his right hand on the vehicle. The laws allowing this were the Hackney Carriage Laws, which were repealed in 1976.[35] Public urination still remains more accepted by males in the UK, although British cultural tradition itself seems to find such practices objectionable.
I guess when wanking became ambidextrous, they nixed that one.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
Just in from Ars: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/california-judge-blocks-voter-approved-ban-on-anonymity-for-sex-offenders/
The Wired article doesn't provide it, and makes it sound like the proposition passed with an 81% Yes vote because people want to track registered sex offenders' Internet activity.
The proposition was billed as the human trafficking and penalties initiative. Its main focus was on increasing penalties for those convicted of human trafficking (mostly kids and women into prostitution). That's why it passed with such a high percentage of Yes votes. The part about sex offenders' Internet activity was a single sentence buried in the middle of the voter pamphlet's summary description, so probably was glazed over by most voters.
I was baffled why something whose main provision seemed like such a no-brainer was even a proposition. It sounded like something the legislature should've been able to pass in 5 minutes. So I did a bit more research and dug up this article explaining why it may not be very helpful, counter-intuitive as that seems. That's something you have to be careful of with these ballot propositions - if it sounds like a simple Yes vote, you need to ask yourself, "What's the catch? Why hasn't the legislature passed this already?"
The main reason I object to these laws is that they are basically permanent punishment. The fundamental design of a functioning legal system is one of rehabilitation—once you've done your time, you become part of society again. Unfortunately, there are a few parts of our government that violate that design—disenfranchisement for convicted felons, sex offender registries, limits on where convicted sex offenders are allowed to live, and so on—by creating permanent or near-permanent punishments.
Unfortunately, such policies are a big part of why the U.S. has such a staggeringly high recidivism rate. They serve as a constant reminder of what the criminal did—a constant reminder that they're not like the rest of society—which makes complete reintegration with society impossible, forcing them to live on the fringes of society. Every time somebody asks if they voted, they either have to lie or have a very awkward conversation. When somebody asks them to pick up their kids, same problem. And so on.
Regardless of the type of crime, if you think someone is likely to reoffend, you shouldn't be letting them out, and if you don't, then you shouldn't be treating them like they're expected to reoffend, because doing so will significantly increase the odds that they will. That's basic psychology. Anyone who can't grasp that concept has absolutely no business setting any sort of policy on crime prevention. Unfortunately, most of the people setting policies on crime prevention don't understand that concept. And that's why crime in the U.S. is likely to keep getting worse.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
They need the room in the prisons for pot smokers. You don't expect the private prison industry to have to deal with dangerous people do you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
In some states a man (and laws ecxlude women) can be put on the Sex Offenders list for simply taking a leak in public.
Imagine this, you are driving along a highway miles from anywhere and nature calls. You stop beside the road and answer the call of nature. When you return to your vehicle there is a police car parked behind yours.
"Yes officer I was answering the call of nature"
Boom, you are in the back of the police car and there goes your life. Chaged with being a sex offender simple for answering the call of nature. Oh, and that means you are branded as being a Sex Offender for Life.
In some countries this is not a crime. Guess which are more civilized societies in my mind?
Sex offenders can come from all walks of life. Some, just as with other criminals, are otherwise fine people and fair candidates for rehabilitation but that is a distinction many people are incapable of making because: (a) they can only view criminals in terms of stereotypes; (b) any attempt to not view criminals in terms of stereotypes leads to cries of "going soft on crime", despite the fact that the prison itself is an abject failure; (c) sex offenders, especially child sex offenders, are the paranoia du jour and we jump at shadows as if on cue; (d) we have sadistic urges and enjoy seeing people punished - the Christian right especially likes to see sinners cast out from society it seems; (e) "sex offender" is a ridiculously broad term, so sweeping as to do great damage. It lumps someone who urinated in a public place in with murdering rapists - what a spectrum! - an injustice if ever there was one.
Unless they're boyscout leaders, teachers, or religious figures -- in which case they should just be moved around to positions in other locations, covered up, and protected by their organizations.
Seriously I'll accept a sex offender registry for persons who prey on children (I will put the cap at 16, although if we were being honest about this, 13 is the better standard for paedophilia. And if you look at the historic reason for raising the age of consent from 13 to 18 (ignoring the original AoC) you'd note that it was TO STOP 'UNDERAGE' PROSTITUTION, not for any actual sensible reason regarding a persons age of maturity or sexual development.) But honestly, applying it indefinitely to 'streakers' 'teenagers sexting their likewise underage partners' and 'public urinators' makes me embarassed to be an american..
But talking sense, which you are, doesn't seem to do anything with this issue. Sense is blocked out. If you talk like this at a party, otherwise intelligent people will look at you like you're a pedophile. Seriously, give it a try if you don't believe me. In this way dissent is silenced: "any critic of the definition of witch/communist/pedophile must be an apologist and probably is witch/communist/pedophile themselves".
Likewise, Janet Jackson should be registered as a sex-offender, right? :)
The Judaic Law (I am Catholic) tolerated teen fornication provided the couple got married afterward, yet in the U.S. an 18-year-old having sex with a 16-year-old is considered rape.
Unless both is famous... Justin Bieber was 16 and Selena Gomez 18 when they were papped making out (just tongue kissing but still). Both are California residents and it happened in California, whose statutory rape law clearly make this illegal (misdemeanor fine), yet no charges were ever filed as far as I know.
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
...adultery -- the topic of two of the ten commandments -- has been completely decriminalized in most states...
...in Moses' time adultery took place *only* if the woman was married, which is why there's a second commandment (men always requiring clarification).
The number of concubines King David had when he moved into the House of Jerusalem is noted....
cheers,
One of the best ways to think of yourself as 'normal' and 'moral' is to create a well defined group that you can say you are not a part of.
Just look at the 80s and associating pedophilia with homosexuality. I have met heterosexual pedophiles that were truly convinced that they were not child molesters because they were strait, and often their churches supported them in this assertion. I saw churches overlook fathers molesting their daughters because the strength of the idea that it was purely a gay thing, thus whatever they WERE doing couldn't possibility be raping their kid. Pointing this out could often get you ostracized....
(d) we have sadistic urges and enjoy seeing people punished - the Christian right especially likes to see sinners cast out from society it seems;
The "Christian right" are neither Christians nor right. Their views do not in any way reflect what Christ taught. His message was forgiveness, tolerance, and nonjudgementalism. He was decidedly against the wealthy and powerful (which was ultimately what got him executed).
The "Christian right" would be in the crowd screaming "CRUCIFY HIM!!!"
Free Martian Whores!