Trolling Is Now Illegal: Two Years In Jail
from the there-go-half-our-comments dept
Why do we still let our government attach totally unrelated bills to each other to sneak in terribly written laws? It seems to keep happening, and the latest one is that a bill attached to a bigger bill concerning funding the Department of Justice (something very few politicians would ever vote against) has a tiny bit of language that now means if you're anonymously annoying online, you face two years in jail. The specific text says that using the internet "without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy... shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." Yes. "Intent to annoy" seems like an incredibly vague standard and has basically criminalized an awful lot of the internet -- including quite a few of the folks who comment here at Techdirt. Anyway, for those of you who enjoy anonymously trolling all over the place online -- watch out. You may face jailtime. Of course, it seems quite unlikely that "intent to annoy" would hold up under Constitutional review, but it may be some time until that test case comes. Update: Commenters at BoingBoing are saying that the original News.com article is horribly misleading, and that Declan McCullough got the story wrong in a major way. The text that McCullough quoted as if from this new bill is not quite the case. If you search on the actual text of the bill, it simply makes a minor update to much older language that is already law concerning "annoying" communications.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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No Subject Given
...God, I hope so.
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Let me be the first
He's been strangely silent lately.
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Re: Let me be the first
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How does this work?
On the one hand, we want legislation to keep companies from participating in the censorship of the people; while on the other hand, we have legislation that is aimed a preventing people from speaking out.
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Good Grief
This is because I don't intend to "annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications". So don't worry about it.
But "Anonymous of Course" is in deep shit re his hurtful comment about dorpus.
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How utterly retarded
This goes back to my rant (elsewhere) about the general clensing of gaming products and the internet. As politicians come across more and more things they don't understand, they would really like to keep them in check until they have it all figured out, which could possibly be never. They don't understand that there are adults that enjoy harassing back and forth, dirty jokes, and even animated hooker beating (I personally like beating real hookers). They want to make things clean for the children, who by all rights should have their parents permission (which means the parents should look over what their kids want to see FIRST, not later when it becomes a problem) before doing anything on the internet or with games. Judging from past circumstances, this came from some whiny kid whose parents weren't watching them not liking being flamed by someone they didnt know for some stupid comment they made.
Oh, and whoever posted this is a doodie head. Neener neener! I have the intent to annoy you, and I'm not using my name!!1!ONE!1!
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Re: How utterly retarded
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Nintendo ennui
I'm annoyed at their intent. Does that mean I can put some congress critters in jail?
Pretty please?
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What does annoy mean?
I thought 1984 was 21 years ago!
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Another law that won't be enforced
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Re: What does annoy mean?
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Re: How utterly retarded
Also, to annoy you, I will inform you that I find you a "doodie head" yourself. This instantly demonstrates the stupidity of the law, because I'm not under federal jurisdiction, so you cannot seek recourse, despite the fact that I did exactly the same as you did. Strikes me as mildly unfair, to say the least...
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Re: What does annoy mean?
Hey, I got the year wrong! I'm annoyed at his nitpicking. Somebody throw him in jail.
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Re: How utterly retarded
Really, though, I know I'm a doodie head.
It does beg the question, however: Do people from other countries posting on [insert your favorite conveyance method of annoying posts here] which is hosted in the U.S. break the law? Will Interpol get involved? What about an American citizen posting internationally? Will some whiny kid from Canada be able to have me thrown in jail because his mother was a gerbil (or at least because I stated that I believed such)?
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Re: Nintendo ennui
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Um.....
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Re: What does annoy mean?
I'm so annoyed.
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Intent to annoy has been illegal for years...
NY Penal Law section 240.30
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Re: Um.....
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Re: What does annoy mean?
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Re: How utterly retarded
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Re: How utterly retarded
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
jk
I look forward to seeing Dorpus listed as public enemy number one by the FBI in a while :)
Go D!
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This is what you deserve for trusting Declan...
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Re: How utterly retarded
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Re: How utterly retarded
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This is the most annoying phucking thread I've eve
Bastages!
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Oops anonymous posting oh boy :O
I also think Microsoft is stupid and dumb (Broke the law again).
Wow I'm in illegal sh*t this time. Help me lawyers. See how stupid the e-annoyance law is. Stupid congress and stupid President Bush (broke the law again 2 times more)
I better report myself to the FBI. Goodbye people. I am going to jail or prison for 6th degree annoyance. I broke the law 6 times hahahaha :)) lol.
We all broke the law. Every Americans broken the law. Oh No.
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Sure...yeah right
HA!
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The wicked troll of the east!!!
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Re: The wicked troll of the east!!!
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Playtime Trolls: an individual plays a simple, short game. Such trolls are relatively easy to spot because their attack or provocation is fairly blatant, and the persona is fairly two-dimensional.
Tactical Trolls: This is where the troller takes the game more seriously, creates a credible persona to gain confidence of others, and provokes strife in a subtle and invidious way.
Strategic Trolls: A very serious form of game, involving the production of an overall strategy that can take months or years to develop. It can also involve a number of people acting together in order to invade a list.
Domination Trolls: This is where the trollers' strategy extends to the creation and running of apparently bona-fide mailing lists.
Psycho Trolls: These trolls have an unconscious psychological need to feel good by making others feel bad. Such people may use their real names on the internet, and they may not even realise that they are "trolling".
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Umm.
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But hey, to hell with the constitution, right?
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TROLLIN'
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No joke
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Re: Re: The wicked troll of the east!!!
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Re: Let me be the first
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