Careful With That Fake Social Networking Profile; If You 'Personate' Someone, You Can Go To Jail

from the careful-who-you-mock dept

Wed, Jun 2nd 2010 3:49am — Mike Masnick

We've seen numerous lawsuits involving schools punishing students for setting up fake social networking profiles of principals or teachers. However, could setting up a fake profile actually be a criminal offense that gets you sent to jail? Evan Brown has the news of how a California appeals court has ruled that a guy who set up a fake MySpace profile of his former pastor can stand trial for the crime of "personation." Apparently, in California, it's illegal to (a) assume the persona of someone else and then (b) do something while pretending to be that person that could get that person into legal trouble. So, it's not just setting up the profile that gets you in trouble, but then doing something with the profile (in this case, the guy suggested the pastor used drugs and was gay).

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Filed Under: fake profiles, personate, pretending
Companies: myspace

18 Comments

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RikuoAmero (profile), 2 Jun 2010 @ 4:33am

Hello
Hey, George W. Bush here, former president of the ol US of A. Just to let people know, I'm actually an Islamic terrorist and am planning to blow up Congress. Now how's that for Personation? ^^
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NullOp, 2 Jun 2010 @ 5:46am

Huh!
Personating is one thing, adding a criminal flavor to it is quite another. Off with their heads!
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2010 @ 6:33am

The first thing I thought... Did George W. Bush write this law? "Personate" just sounds like a Bush'ism.
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2010 @ 7:10am
  
  Re:
  #3: The article says that in it is illegal in California, which means that it's probably a state law, and to my knowledge the president of the United States does not make state laws. I could ofcourse be wrong though, but if he had really made this law it would probably be a federal law.
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  - interval, 2 Jun 2010 @ 8:29am
    
    Re: Re:
    "...my knowledge the president of the United States does not make state laws. I could ofcourse be wrong though, but if he had really made this law it would probably be a federal law."
    
    Actually, you were correct in the first point; the Legislative branch of the government makes laws. At best Bush might introduced a bill that would have specified this "Personation" stricture. It would have been up to Congress to make it an actual law, which he then would have had to sign.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2010 @ 6:56am

so effectively we can no longer dress up as any of our idols for halloween b/c we can't personate them.
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WammerJammer (profile), 2 Jun 2010 @ 7:14am

So funny
So the Pastor can get up on his pulpit and preach hate speech about the evils of being gay or being a drug user and that's perfectly legal because of the rights of free speech in America. Oxy Morons. Actually I thought the word was impersonate.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2010 @ 7:36am

The answer is castration. If successful, it may result in people playing BINGO.
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winston Lawrence, 2 Jun 2010 @ 8:14am

Fake Steve Jobs - Go to Jail
Do you think STeve Jobs was behind this one :-) Seriously they would have to go after Saturday Night Live, Mad Magazine, The Onion, anything Hilton, Madonna or Kardashian
(on second thoughts maybe this is a good thing - nevermind).
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2010 @ 8:21am

I wonder why they don't haven't imprisoned every last actor in Hollywood yet.
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Noeb Ody, 2 Jun 2010 @ 8:47am

Fuc|( this draconian sh*t
As long as you use a ridiculous moniker, the pigs case will fall apart in court!

Use TOR (Google it)
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Overcast (profile), 2 Jun 2010 @ 9:01am

So if I setup a facebook page of "Idiot Extreme" - then politicians could sue me?
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RobShaver, 2 Jun 2010 @ 9:15am

Identity Theft
"Personation" sounds like a form of identity theft to me. I guess this guy didn't use the pastor's SSN or his credit cards but if he said his name is "X" and is the pastor of "Y" church that's pretty clear. I can think of no legitimate reason to do this other. If your intention is satire then you better make it clear that the web page is satire (like saying at the bottom, "This page is intended as satire and for entertainment purpose only.")
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Vic, 2 Jun 2010 @ 12:00pm

Is that law approved by Hollywood?
'Cause all actors will be guilty under it! Or are there "fair use" provisions?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2010 @ 1:00pm

How about assuming the person of Harry Potter?
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Jun 2010 @ 2:53pm
  
  Re:
  exactly - what about all the fictional character twitter accounts?
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Jay (profile), 7 Jun 2010 @ 1:41pm

Doublethink activated
So... We have police officers who can impersonate girls age 14 for arresting pedophiles, and yet for the average person a fake account leads to a felony?

Thanks America for showing your hypocrisy!

Oh, I could go on. You have marketers that now use Twitter. Why can't they get hit with a lawsuit? And if your name just so happens to have been spelled wrongly and coincidently libels someone else? The list could go on and on...
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Hex, 7 Dec 2010 @ 10:14am

Missing the Point
Everyone seems to be missing the point that the lynchpin in all this is that the law states that you must "then (b) do something while pretending to be that person that could get that person into legal trouble".

Basically, framing them.
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