Trolling may soon be illegal

[KingOfJericho]

Being obnoxious on the Internet may soon cease to be a fundamental right in Arizona, where lawmakers approved a measure that effectively makes trolling illegal.
As Gizmodo reports, Arizona House Bill 2549 passed both legislative houses last week and awaits approval by Governor Jan Brewer. It states:

It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use ANY ELECTRONIC OR DIGITAL DEVICE and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act, or threaten to inflict physical harm to the person or property of any person.

Like so much other knee-jerk technology legislation, Arizona’s bill is noble at heart. Its goal is to stop cyber-bullying by outlawing threats and intimidation delivered via Internet.
But as Media Coalition–an organization that includes film and music industry trade groups–points out, the bill is far too broad, both in its language and its scope. By using vague terms like “annoy” and “offend,” the bill risks criminalizing standard Internet practice of acting like a jerk in the comments section of a blog post. Because the bill isn’t limited to one-on-one communication, all open communication on the Internet could be considered a Class 1 misdemeanor if someone deemed the language offensive.
“Government may criminalize speech that rises to the level of harassment and many states have laws that do so, but this legislation takes a law meant to address irritating phone calls and applies it to communication on web sites, blogs, listserves and other Internet communication,” Media Coalition wrote in a letter to Brewer last week.
Ultimately, a law this broad isn’t going to hold up in court. But if the governor signs off on the bill, it will end up wasting a lot of time as free speech defenders work to restore the right to act like a belligerent fool in online forums. No one likes a troll, but behaving like one needn’t be a crime.

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2012/04/03/...#ixzz1r5BtQ0Ep

http://techland.time.com/2012/04/03/...rnet-trolling/

[bolinp78]

The bill was clearly written by people that have very little understanding of the internet.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by bolinp78

The bill was clearly written by people that have very little understanding of the internet.

Be careful, you may offend someone.

[Maestro]

How is trolling on the internet any different than a neighbor who does the exact same to their neighbors over the back yard fence.

You can harass, offend, intimidate, annoy terrify you neighbor all you like as long as you do not step over the line.

These law makers have no clue, but is just example of them make a law which they know if against freedom of speech and expression, just to show people they are trying to do something.

They should pass a law that it is illegal to be spineless pussy who is afraid of what someone might say about them.

[mccannable]

Jan brewer is trolling.

[yakev724]

Originally Posted by bolinp78

The bill was clearly written by people that have very little understanding of the internet.

As was SOPA and CISPA, unfortunately.

[E90SoFlo]

SMH....

[iBoost]

Alright guys this is my last post, comment, and moment of the "Internet" I'm outta here.

[yakev724]

Newegg has 2TB WD Externals at $115 shipped. Picked one up on Monday.

[Alpine Whiteboy]

So wait... Can I still troll on Xbox live???

[Brian@bavarianx]

Hahaha nice find

[MurderedOut]

i'm a troll and i find this offensive why is it unlawful to be 3 feet tall and live under a bridge while talking on the internet

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by bolinp78

The bill was clearly written by people that have very little understanding of the internet.

...and law as well...

What's with all the ambiguous crap in there?

[KingOfJericho]

you guys can't keep throwing the "t-word" around like this...

[991brothers]

lol CollinsE90 is probably freaking the fuck out right now

[Maestro]

AZ will keep track of all of you and will arrest you when you show up in AZ for trolling.

[schoy]

Originally Posted by Maestro

You can harass, offend, intimidate, annoy terrify you neighbor all you like as long as you do not step over the line.

If you meant the physical property "line", that statement is false in so many ways.

If by "line" you meant a metaphysical threshold, then the statement is self-conclusive (i.e. you can do X so long as you can do X) and hence meaningless.

[Maestro]

Originally Posted by schoy

If you meant the physical property "line", that statement is false in so many ways.

If by "line" you meant a metaphysical threshold, then the statement is self-conclusive (i.e. you can do X so long as you can do X) and hence meaningless.

no not the physical line.

Trust me I have seen plenty of situation where a neighbor terrorized a neighborhood and made threats and there was nothing anyone could do since the person never acted on their threats. hell I see where a guy would sit on his porch all the time cleaning his guns and point them all over the place be never pointed them at someone police were called and guess what nothing, not law about cleaning your gun on your porch, but everyone knew what he was doing intimating everyone one.

[xe90x]

What's up with all these non important laws

[GmoBmw]

Heheh... Man The Feds must be bored passing laws like this.

[Tom K.]

Originally Posted by GmoBmw

Heheh... Man The Feds must be bored passing laws like this.

What feds? Arizona is a state.

Tom

[Comet]

Xbox live will go bankrupt after this