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 Post subject: Telling Lies Online a Federal Felony?
PostPosted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 8:01 am 
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I just received the latest email installment from VistaNews and thought it quite germane to the current happenings on these message boards. As you know I rarely post full text articles but this one is an exception.

Editor's Corner

Are You Breaking the Law by Lying Online?

Most folks know that pirating software or music can subject you to civil lawsuits, criminal charges or both. We all know that downloading or sending child pornography, or even just having it on your computer's hard drive (or a record of having visited a site where it's promoted) can get you into a world of legal trouble. You may be aware that in some states, you can be arrested for using someone else's wireless network, even if it's open and unencrypted. But there are other, more subtle legalities involved in navigating the Info Highway, and there's a lot of misinformation out there. Many people are confused - and that's inevitable, because the mishmash of international, federal, state and local law (not to mention the differences between criminal, civil and administrative law) is confusing.

I'm a former law enforcement officer and criminal justice instructor; I'm not a lawyer. I know quite a bit about the laws in my state, but I can't give legal advice and nothing in this editorial should be construed as such. Rather, it's intended to be a discussion about how to find out about some of the laws you never knew existed and to make you aware of some potential issues that you may not have ever considered when it comes to what you do online. It's also about whether or not certain online acts should be against the law, and how those laws should be implemented, from the point of view of the citizens who elect the representatives who make the laws.

Specifically, I want to look at the issue of telling lies - about yourself or others - in online forums. Anyone who's been around the Internet for a while knows that, as in a singles bar, it's wise to take whatever a stranger tells you with a grain of salt. If we were to lock up all those who hide behind the anonymity of the 'Net to pretend to be younger, thinner, richer or just more interesting than they really are, the jails would be overflowing. But people are being sued and criminally prosecuted for telling lies online.

Identity theft is a big problem, despite the fact that some studies have indicated that the numbers are finally decreasing. According to the Javelin Strategy and Research Survey of February 2007, both the number of victims in the U.S. and the dollar value attributed to identity fraud were lower in 2007 than 2006. You can take a look at the PDF report at
http://www.vistanews.com/6ABBE6/080728- ... eft-Report

Certainly most of us would agree that stealing someone's identity by using his or her social security number or getting credit in another person's name should be a crime, and that's what most of us think of when we think of identity theft. But recently, some have suggested that definition should be extended to cover cases such as the widely reported ones where people (often underage students) create fake profiles on social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook, pretending to be someone else (often a teacher, principal or classmate). The fake sites may falsely depict the victims as drunks, drug users or sexually promiscuous, or they may divulge personal information such as the victim's phone number and address.

Usually, these cases play out in the civil courts. In one case in Texas in 2006, an assistant principal sued two students for defamation and libel and their parents for negligent supervision when the students created a MySpace site that represented itself as having been posted by the assistant principal herself and contained false and damaging information about her. Apparently criminal charges for fraudulent use of identifying information were also filed.
http://www.vistanews.com/6ABBE6/080728-Criminal-Charges

Some of the defendants in these cases are claiming protection under the first amendment, on the premise that the sites constitute "parody, sarcasm or criticism," which courts have held in the past to fall under free speech protections. Some of the attorneys for the plaintiffs are going to extremes in the opposite direction, calling it "cyberterrorism."
http://www.vistanews.com/6ABBE6/080728-Cyber-Terrorism

Should this be considered identity theft (which is a felony in many jurisdictions)? Should it be a different (perhaps less serious) offense? Or should it be punished severely as a form of cyberterrorism? Should it remain a civil matter, to be settled between the parties in a lawsuit? Or is it just a harmless teenage prank that should be handled by the parents? These are the kinds of questions legislators are asking as they attempt to make appropriate laws governing online behavior.

These cases have led some folks to call for legislation that would make it illegal to post any kind of fake profile online or to put any false information in a social networking profile. Depending on how the law was written, this might make a felon out of anyone who puts in an incorrect city/state in order to prevent everyone on the web from knowing where he/she lives. Heck, if it's as all encompassing as some have proposed, it would even turn grandma into a criminal if she lied about her age in her profile and claimed to be only 69 when she turned 70 four years ago. Or what about the celebrity who makes up a different name and persona so as to be able to go online without being identified as his or her famous self?

Even without a law that explicitly prohibits falsifying a profile, some creative district attorneys have found a way to prosecute. In 2006, a Missouri woman created a fake MySpace profile, pretending to be a teenage boy who first befriended and then later rejected a teenage girl, who then committed suicide. In May 2008, federal prosecutors finally criminal charges against the woman. The surprise was what they charged her with: accessing protected computers without authorization. Huh? That's a charge generally associated with hackers. But here's their rationale: the MySpace Terms of Service (ToS) agreement prohibits registering for the service with false information. Wait, you might say - violation of a ToS isn't a criminal offense. Oh, but the indictment charges that because she violated the ToS, her access to the site was unauthorized. And if she accessed the MySpace servers without authorization, then she's guilty of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Read about it here:
http://www.vistanews.com/6ABBE6/080728- ... gistration

Now, I think most reasonable people would agree that 40something women should not go around harassing teenage girls, online or off. This case would probably fall under the many "cyberbullying" laws that have been passed over the last few years.
http://www.vistanews.com/6ABBE6/080728-Cyberbullying

However, the application of the law in this case is a little scary. It means anyone who has ever violated the ToS of any site or Internet service could be charged with a federal crime that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. And putting false information in a form is not the only way to violate a ToS. Most people probably don't even read the ToS of most of the sites they sign up for.

In fact, you don't even have to sign up to violate the ToS of MySpace, which states "By using the MySpace Services, you agree to be bound by this Agreement, whether you are a "Visitor" (which means that you simply browse the MySpace Website, including through a mobile device, or otherwise use the MySpace Services without being registered) or you are a "Member" (which means that you have registered with MySpace)." And that agreement contains a long list of things you're now allowed to do. Heck, if you should disclose your MySpace password to your spouse, you'd be violating the ToS, and thus could theoretically be sent to federal prison for "unauthorized" use of the site.

You might argue that the law would never be used that way - but no one foresaw it being used the way it was used against the Missouri woman, either. Once upon a time, our society recognized that behavior could be bad, could even be harmful, without having to be illegal. Today there seems to be a movement afoot to make every undesirable act a criminal offense. And if it's not, we'll bend the existing laws around to find a way to prosecute.

Hey, I used to be a cop. I'm not sympathetic toward criminals, especially those who hurt children. But I'm also opposed to the idea of misusing the law, even for the "right" reasons. And I think the trend toward criminalizing everything is a dangerous one that ultimately leads to less respect for the law and dilutes the ability of the government to enforce those laws that do need to be enforced. But that's just me. Tell me what you think. Should lying online be a federal crime? Always, or only when it hurts someone? And does "hurt" include hurting someone's feelings or making someone feel like a fool, or does the damage have to be physical or monetary? Come clean: have you ever violated a ToS agreement? Do you even read them before you click the "Accept" button? Was the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act itself abused in the case we discussed? Or does the end justify the means? Share your opinions at feedback@vistanews.com



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If you voted for the Dems don't be surprised when things don't turn out quite as you were led to expect. Some might call it pure Marxism. But the problem with Obama economics is there's not enough money in the world to make it work.


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 Post subject: Re: Telling Lies Online a Federal Felony?
PostPosted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 3:43 pm 
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:14 pm
Posts: 1483
Hope FREE reads this....wow, would the mayor have a "field day." Not to mention - me.


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 Post subject: Re: Telling Lies Online a Federal Felony?
PostPosted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 2:35 pm 
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Joined: Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:08 am
Posts: 4781
I know one well known poster whom better take heed!

:twisted:

_________________
If you voted for the Dems don't be surprised when things don't turn out quite as you were led to expect. Some might call it pure Marxism. But the problem with Obama economics is there's not enough money in the world to make it work.


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