Rhode Island has decided to repeal its law criminalizing white lies on the web. (i.e. lying about your weight, location, etc) http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_LYING_ONLINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-06-26-19-06-34 The UK has decided to criminalize trolls. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jun/12/bill-internet-trolls-wary-welcome While trolling is certainly aggravating and annoying, should it really warrant criminal charges? Rhode Island thought lies deserved misdemeanor charges, but upon further consideration, they realized most online subscribers in the state had become criminals. Seems like RI got bop of common sense, while, the UK got a shot of authoritarianism.
The Rhode Island law is ridiculous. I'm not sure how the UK law works, but we need a better method of identifying and prosecuting people - who commit outright illegal behavior on the web. The anonyminity of the web has made it a haven for criminals, stalkers, perverts, etc For example, about a year ago there was a Canadian nutcase who had been making death threats and sending out thousands of spam messages to people online for the past 10 years, before anything was done about it (and it was pretty much a slap on the wrist). If I'd done that in real life then I'd likely have been prosecuted way before then.
Making death threats online, in a letter, or in person is illegal in America, and understandably so. Spamming is also illegal. I don't know anything about the Canadian case. Being an annoyance is one thing, being arrested for being an annoyance is another.
If you had any idea about the amount of trolling we see every day, you would fully support making internet trolling a criminal offense.
That's my point - actually being arrested for illegal activity online is much much harder, so while technically it is illegal, in practice it's more or less not prosecuted or harder to prosecute. This is also why the internet is such a haven for child porn - sure we have undercover detectives who are able to track down child porn perverts, but why are child porn websites even able to exist in the first place - why aren't the webhosts shutting them down and reporting all the individuals to their ISPs and local police?
Do the webhosts know these sites actually contain porn? If you had a site within a site within a site within a site etc, and tenth site was the actual porn site, would the webhost know? Like clicking a link, it takes you to another page. Click link after link and get to the actual porn and I doubt the webhost would be able to find this out all the time.
How hard would it be for a webhost to verify what people are hosting on the host's own internet space? My guess is that many of these webhosting services are just negligent and don't want to take the time to verify it.
Given the amount of mods here, I imagine quite a bit. Forgive me though, I'm American, and I not only favor free speech, I think it's a God given right. Yelling fire in a crowded public area causing hysteria resulting in death is one thing, but simply being a nuisance is another. By no means am I trying to advocate trolling. I fully support the sovereignty of websites to run them as they see fit. IP addresses are no secret to web designers. Proxy servers are a red flag should someone feel the need for more privacy. Of course there are still ways around that, but only to great discomfort to the troll. (I think) In all honesty, I think at least half the posts on this forum that are acceptable are simply to raise the eyebrows of the opposition. Just my opinion though. Out of curiosity, who runs this site? Is it a single entity, or is it a collective group?
Anyone caught with child porn on their computer in America is not only arrested, they get their picture posted all over the local news and media. That's when they are sent to prison after being convicted and given the prisoner's code of justice. (i.e. Jefferey Dalmer got a broomstick too far up his rectum resulting in death) Even Sandusky got a welcome greeting in jail. http://www.us101country.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104668&article=10224703 Child porn in essense is hardly comparable to being a complete horse's pa-toot.
To be clear, I don't find most of this trolling, but where do you draw the line a courtroom? California's mores and folkways are quite different from my neck of the woods. That includes Australia.
