Web Impostors May Face Prison in California. Internet users pretending to be others could be prosecuted—and sued—if Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signs an "e-personation" bill.
By Olga Kharif. California Web impostors beware: You may soon be breaking the law, even if you aren't one of the perpetrators targeted by the state's "e-personation" bill. The measure, which is awaiting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature, carries fines of as much as $1,000 and a year in jail for anyone who poses as another person online with malicious intent. The law, which would take effect on Jan. 1, would also allow victims to file civil suits. People other than criminals may be affected by the legislation, Bloomberg Businessweek.com reported today. Pranksters, writers of satire, and even activists living outside the state could be subject to legal action, some lawyers say. Fake accounts in the names of celebrities and politicians abound on microblogging site Twitter and social network Facebook. "The law is very vague," Aaron Simpson, a privacy lawyer and partner at firm Hunton & Williams in New York, said in an interview. "Legitimate forms of speech could be caught within its grasp. This is going to be tough for the courts to process." The law applies to anyone who credibly impersonates "for purposes of harming, intimidating, threatening, or defrauding another person," according to the language of the bill, whose author is state Senator Joe Simitian, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Silicon Valley. the Yes Men: "identity correction" Online impersonators living outside the state may be affected, said Eric Goldman, an associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. "It's impossible for people to respect geographic borders when sending content over the Internet," Goldman said in an interview. A wave of e-personation laws across the country—New York and Texas have enacted such legislation—may curb activists who use a strategy known as "identity correction," in which they impersonate an organization on the Web or offline to shine light on a political cause. "The targets of this satire are frequently not very happy, so they make all kinds of legal threats," said Corynne McSherry, senior attorney at San Francisco-based privacy-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an interview. "Activists may feel chilled." Take the Yes Men, a group of 300 self-described impostors. Last year the group staged a Washington news conference posing as members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. They also created a website using the real group's logos, part of an effort to lobby for a change in the chamber's stance on climate-change legislation. The real chamber filed a civil complaint that's pending in federal court. This was the first legal action taken against the Yes Men's antics, co-founder Jacques Servin said. more... http://tinyurl.com/323yx32 _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
