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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Zoltan! who wrote (60656)	10/26/1999 8:51:00 AM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 108807

Please, don't confuse that idiot with the facts. JLA

To: Zoltan! who wrote (60656)	10/26/1999 9:26:00 AM
From: nihil	Respond to of 108807

I would like to see the court decisions ruling that publication on the internet is not publishing. In defamation, "publication" is making the information known to one other person (or more).

To: Zoltan! who wrote (60656)	10/26/1999 9:30:00 AM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

AG seeks to outlaw Net threats Drafting bill in aftermath of Townsend case By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Correspondent, 10/26/99 Before the telecommunications revolution, a paralyzed teenager in Missouri would have had trouble convincing the residents of a Massachusetts town that he was ready to commit violence against a group of local middle-school children. But that's exactly what law enforcement officials say 19-year-old Christian Hunold did from his house in Smithville, Mo., making threats on the Internet so specific that Townsend residents believed he lived in their small town near the New Hampshire border. No state law has been written in anticipation of this kind of crime, one where a person who would have difficulty physically harming anyone could terrorize an entire community by manipulating technology, state Attorney General Thomas Reilly said yesterday. Massachusetts, Reilly said, needs a law targeting what he calls ''cyber-terrorism,'' making it a crime to send threats over the Internet, or via e-mail or fax. Caught off guard, the state struggled to decide how to prosecute the techno- threats Hunold is allegedly responsible for unleashing upon a town 1,500 miles away from his home, said Kurt Schwartz, deputy chief of the Massachusetts attorney general's Criminal Bureau. ''We often enact laws in response to crimes and criminal trends,'' Schwartz said. ''We may not have seen enough of these cyber-type crimes for us to recognize the need, but we have definitely recognized that need now.'' Reilly said his office will draft cyber-terrorism legislation this week and is examining how other states, like Ohio, have addressed similar concerns. Hunold faces a series of charges for disseminating child pornography and threatening to commit assault, but these charges ''don't truly fit what this crime is all about,'' Schwartz said. Hunold, who was paralyzed in a motor vehicle accident, has been described as a quadriplegic. However, he has limited use of his upper body, Schwartz said, making it possible for him to type on a computer keyboard. From his home computer in Missouri, Hunold entered an America Online chat room used by some 50 Hawthorne Brook Middle School children, Schwartz said. Over a number of weeks, Hunold allegedly undertook a painstaking compilation of personal information about individual students. He then used what he had learned in chat rooms to convince those individuals he was in their midst, Schwartz said. ''For example, he might monitor a discussion about what another student was wearing at school that day,'' Schwartz said. ''Then he would contact that person and say, 'I saw your red dress today.''' Hunold used multiple screen names, so Townsend children did not always realize they were talking to the same person, Schwartz said. Police began investigating in late September after some students told their parents someone had directed them to child pornography sites. Last week, according to Reilly, Hunold started making serious threats against the school - one of his Web sites said it would be blown up within two weeks - and against individual students. Bomb squads inspected Hawthorne Brook on Friday, and students were searched as they entered school. Hunold was arrested Saturday, after police traced Internet sites and service provider accounts to him. The 19-year-old will receive a summons to be arraigned in Ayer District Court, according to the attorney general's office. When reached by phone yesterday, his family refused to comment. Without the pornography charges to fall back upon, Reilly said, Massachusetts would have difficulty prosecuting Hunold for the more serious crime of threatening to commit violence. ''The situation that the children and their parents faced last Thursday and Friday was very real and very terrifying,'' Reilly said. ''It turns out that this was someone across the country who at no time posed a real threat. But in terms of psychological damage, it's a far more serious matter than our laws recognize. '' This story ran on page B01 of the Boston Globe on 10/26/99. © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company. boston.com

To: Zoltan! who wrote (60656)	10/26/1999 10:43:00 AM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

In addition, some courts have ruled that posting on the internet by individuals is not publishing. Thats what I said too, in an earlier post... that was mentioned at a party I attended recently. This guy also said that a lot of internet cases are going straight up to the supreme court (here in Ca) because the medium is so new.. and therefore there are a ton of lawsuits because the lawyers want notoriety. If JLA sued me, over something I said on SI... would it be Ca, NH or Seattle do you know? My only opinion is that if you threaten someone with a lawsuit you should follow through, or else stop the threats... its just a promise like any promise. BTW one guy wants me to sue e-trade for that identity situation I'm having... do you think its worth it? I must say I'm pretty peeved about it, but I avoid lawsuits just as a matter of course.