Arizona legislature passes bill to ban trolling (what?)

[Raxa]

Well, I was scratching my head when I read this:

Quote:

"It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use a 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."

Link: http://cbldf.org/homepage/arizona-legislature-passes-sweeping-electronic-speech-censorship-bill/ -Article from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund
http://www.azleg.gov//FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/50leg/2r/bills/hb2549s.htm&Session_ID=107 - Full Bill text from Arizona legislature

The bill is awaiting the governors signature to become law.

The problem I have with this, is it basically creates a whole bunch of new compliance issues that Gaia (this will probably include me as well) might need to meet.

I highly doubt this law would withstand a court challenge, don't even start on how they intend to identify individuals, and get various entities to comply with their searches, or the manpower needed to enforce said law.

Personally, I don't want to have to be reporting every Arizona citizen I find trolling to the authorities, but that's just me.

So, if said law does pass, will it affect your posts on the on various websites? (Ha ha, sure it will)
Do you think other states might pass similar laws?
Will citizens of Arizona be allowed to create content on the internet ever again?

edit: yeah, I spelled some stuff wrong in the title on the first go, come at me bro!

[Disa Uniflora]

*tears off jacket to reveal Canadian flag shirt*

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! GO TO HELL, STATE OF ARIZONA! GO EAT A d**k AND DIE!

Overly broad, vacuous, unenforceable, and redundant. Poor law-making with all the fixings.

[Less Than Liz]

Disa Uniflora

*tears off jacket to reveal Canadian flag shirt*

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! GO TO HELL, STATE OF ARIZONA! GO EAT A d**k AND DIE!

Overly broad, vacuous, unenforceable, and redundant. Poor law-making with all the fixings.

At first glance, you're quoting the broader definition of harassment. The aggravated assault section, which is what is being amended, is designed to give the state cause against similar behavior over the electronic devices over telephones i.e., it's what actually criminalizes behavior. Otherwise, people who engaged in such harassment over the internet might be insulated from criminal prosecution even though the same behavior by telephone would potentially subject them to prosecution.

[Disa Uniflora]

Less Than Liz

Disa Uniflora

*tears off jacket to reveal Canadian flag shirt*

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! GO TO HELL, STATE OF ARIZONA! GO EAT A d**k AND DIE!

Overly broad, vacuous, unenforceable, and redundant. Poor law-making with all the fixings.

At first glance, you're quoting the broader definition of harassment. The aggravated assault section, which is what is being amended, is designed to give the state cause against similar behavior over the electronic devices over telephones i.e., it's what actually criminalizes behavior. Otherwise, people who engaged in such harassment over the internet might be insulated from criminal prosecution even though the same behavior by telephone would potentially subject them to prosecution.

FINE.

[Less Than Liz]

Disa Uniflora

Less Than Liz

Disa Uniflora

*tears off jacket to reveal Canadian flag shirt*

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! GO TO HELL, STATE OF ARIZONA! GO EAT A d**k AND DIE!

Overly broad, vacuous, unenforceable, and redundant. Poor law-making with all the fixings.

At first glance, you're quoting the broader definition of harassment. The aggravated assault section, which is what is being amended, is designed to give the state cause against similar behavior over the electronic devices over telephones i.e., it's what actually criminalizes behavior. Otherwise, people who engaged in such harassment over the internet might be insulated from criminal prosecution even though the same behavior by telephone would potentially subject them to prosecution.

FINE.

Well, I'm looking at it mid-class while being quizzed on ESOPs and only being able to glance at West, so there's room for error on my part. Legislatures doing silly things or not anticipating certain consequences is usually par for the course, after all.

EDIT: It's looking like, so far, that "electronic means" is designed to capture devices that can make multiple phone calls more than anything along the lines of a computer.

[Director Danguy]

Pft. Love to see them try to enforce this. Will this affect me at all either way? Thankfully no, since I don't live in the shithole that is Arizona.

Edit: Holy s**t, a Mod generating content in ED-P. Shall I take this as the First Horseman?

[19 yr old Political Geek]

What Danguy said. Love to see them try and enforce it.

I feel I'm obliged to do this.

HEY ARIZONA!

[Ban]

Mmm, Gaia is covered under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. There's no liability involved in distribution or publication under federal law, which arguably ought to preempt state law in these circumstances, and the state law doesn't seem geared towards distributors in any case, but the individuals who originate the messages.

In general, there seems to a good challenge for the law being overbroad, as it certainly encompasses speech that is constitutionally protected. I guess the question is whether this might be a reasonable restriction on the manner of speech, but given the implicit federal goal of keeping content on the Internet largely unregulated, I'm not sure how well that'd fly.

[Heimdalr]

The best part is where they wrapped this as an update of an outdated law. The Internet being perfectly comparable to the telephone and all.

[N3bu]

And if you don't live in Arizona?

Trololol.

[Heimdalr]

N3bu

And if you don't live in Arizona?

Trololol.

They'll demand extradition. wink

[Director Danguy]

Heimdalr

The best part is where they wrapped this as an update of an outdated law. The Internet being perfectly comparable to the telephone and all.

My sarcasm detector is being worn down by pain, so if this is something it's missed apologies.

If not, then of course, so similar. There were so many people running businesses solely over the phone when it came out.

[N3bu]

Heimdalr

N3bu

And if you don't live in Arizona?

Trololol.

They'll demand extradition. wink

GL.

[Heimdalr]

Director Danguy

Heimdalr

The best part is where they wrapped this as an update of an outdated law. The Internet being perfectly comparable to the telephone and all.

My sarcasm detector is being worn down by pain, so if this is something it's missed apologies.

If not, then of course, so similar. There were so many people running businesses solely over the phone when it came out.

It was sarcasm; I tried to compare the two within the frame of this issue and found they cannot easily be juxtaposed, in that the audience is in one case singular and in the other potentially exhaustive. There exists telephone trolling however, and I would not ban that either due to good experiences with morning radio pranks.

[Director Danguy]

Heimdalr

Director Danguy

Heimdalr

The best part is where they wrapped this as an update of an outdated law. The Internet being perfectly comparable to the telephone and all.

My sarcasm detector is being worn down by pain, so if this is something it's missed apologies.

If not, then of course, so similar. There were so many people running businesses solely over the phone when it came out.

It was sarcasm; I tried to compare the two within the frame of this issue and found they cannot easily be juxtaposed, in that the audience is in one case singular and in the other potentially exhaustive. There exists telephone trolling however, and I would not ban that either due to good experiences with morning radio pranks.

Thought so. Again, the detector is a bit broken at the moment.