eesh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The police will only care when you try to
> extort/blackmail, or actually threaten harm
> towards someone with information gathered from an
> outing.
Bzzt. Sorry.
Deflection fail.
The law at issue,
§ 18.2-186.4, criminalizes publishing somebody's personal identifying information with the intent to "coerce, intimidate, or harass".
Breach of the law is a Class 1 misdemeanor, the same as
"petit larceny" shoplifting.
Of course, the police also care about extortion and blackmail -- but that's a different crime covered by a different law:
Va. code § 18.2-59.
Same as with threats to harm -- a different crime covered by a different law:
§ 18.2-60.
In other words, the internet harassment law set forth in the original post is just what it says it is, and not what FU's greatest outer of personal identifying information says it is not.
> The police will only care blah blah blah
Bullshit.
The police, prosecutors, and judges care about behavior that the law criminalizes. Period. And there are new laws coming on the books all the time. It's not just the "good old crimes" that they care about.
"The police will only care" = eesh trying to work some reverse psychology on the people reading this thread, and one person in particular, whose name, address and phone number he recently exposed.
He would love to discourage that person from contacting law enforcement.
Unfortunately, he can no longer use pm to try to work a deal; that route is tainted!
How about a phone call? He's got the guy's number, after all.
Mmm, yeah, I don't think so.
"Hello, this is eesh" is probably not going to go over real well with someone whose cell phone number you've just outed.
And for you folks at home who are wondering why the legislature would criminalize the kind of internet harassment described in the original post, take a good look at this remark:
laughing at you Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You got outed, not by me. I can, however, mock you
> until the day you die seeing as
I know who you
>
are, your wife is, and where you live. That's the
> price of playing with the big boys, shitskin. Like
> I said earlier,
you dug your own grave and I've
> been loving every single laugh since.
The Virginia legislature recognizes that there can be serious adverse consequences if someone's identity is exposed online. And they've decided that when someone exposes such information deliberately, with the intent to harass or intimidate, that such behavior is criminal -- a misdemeanor, like shoplifting.
Sounds about right to me.
What about the First Amendment?
The law has always recognized that the First Amendment is consistent with criminalizing certain kinds of speech.
Whether speech is criminal often depends on the speaker's intent.
Such is the case here.
If this was a bad law that transgressed the First Amendment, we would have heard about it. The ACLU would be all over it.
But the ACLU is not all over it, so far as I can see.
The state legislature saw a problem, and they passed this law to try to solve it -- to prevent such behavior, or to punish it where prevention has failed. And thus to stigmatize such behavior, and eliminate it to the extent possible consistent with laws protecting freedom of speech.
Again, why would anyone who comes within the scope of its protection ignore this law?
It's there to help you.
Use it.
The only people trying to discourage you are the ones who know this law may very well land on their own ill-covered heads, like an unwelcome deposit from the ever-clever bird of Karma.