CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘Harassment’ Category

UK – Facebook threats woman detained: “(BBC)
A teenager has been detained for three months in a young offenders’ institution for harassing a woman on social networking website Facebook. Keeley Houghton swore at and threatened Emily Moore in person and on the internet in July, Worcester Magistrates’ Court heard. The 18-year-old of Elgar Avenue, in Malvern, Worcestershire, admitted a charge of harassment on 31 July. She was also given a five-year restraining order. Houghton is prohibited from contacting Ms Moore, or commenting about her on any social networking system or website during that time.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

YouTube clarifies ban on privacy invasions, harassment and threats: “YouTube has clarified the conditions under which it would remove videos that invade people’s privacy or harass, impersonate or threaten them.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Regulator to probe Davenport Lyons’ P2P porn cash demands: “

Hot watchdog on watchdog action

Lawyers for the consumer rights lobby Which? have filed an official complaint to the body that regulates solicitors over Davenport Lyons’ campaign of letters alleging illegal filesharing.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Lori Drew guilty in MySpace bully trial: “

Suicide sparked by online abuse

The woman accused of using MySpace to bully a vulnerable teenage girl who subsequently killed herself has been found guilty of three charges.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Lori Drew guilty in MySpace bully trial: “The woman accused of using MySpace to bully a vulnerable teenage girl who subsequently killed herself has been found guilty of three charges.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Verdict in MySpace Suicide Case: “A Missouri woman who prosecutors say drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide by tormenting her with a fake MySpace persona was acquitted of the most serious charges.

(Via NYT > Technology.)

Liberty and the BNP -Times Online

Liberty and the BNP, November 20, 2008

For the far right to appeal to a liberalism they hold in contempt is pathetic, but there is a strong practical case to defend free association

Last month, a leading Holocaust denier, Dr Fredrick Toben, was arrested at Heathrow on a European arrest warrant. In court he complained that there was a witch-hunt mentality in Germany and that the Germans were out to get him. He appeared not to appreciate the irony of this accusation.

In the same way, it is hard to take entirely seriously the lamentations of the British National Party over the publication of its membership list. Having complained that the publication of the list opened its vulnerable members to violence and intimidation, Simon Darby, the BNP spokesman, announced that the person responsible for publication had made a serious mistake. ‘I wouldn’t want to have done that,’ he said. ‘I wouldn’t be sleeping well tonight.’ The juxtaposition of plea for sympathy and veiled threat was not, as with Dr Toben, intended to be ironic.

Nor was Nick Griffin, the party leader, employing irony when he announced that he believed that the human rights of his members had been breached and that he might use the Human Rights Act to seek redress.

The exposure of the British National Party’s hypocrisy – appealing to a liberalism that it holds in contempt – is one reason to welcome the list’s publication. A second is that it reveals that the party remains tiny and weak, despite its electoral success. Finally, the breach of security is likely to undermine and distract the party leadership at a time when it might be hoping to use the recession as a recruiting sergeant. Yesterday numerous party members were calling for Mr Griffin to resign.

Yet for those who believe, as The Times does, that liberty is the best defence of liberalism, satisfaction at the blow to the BNP should be limited. The breach of the privacy of members, with the publication of their addresses and telephone numbers, is regrettable. If a concentrated effort were made to prevent BNP members from earning a living that would be more regrettable still.

These concerns are not inspired by a naive belief that the purity of liberalism must never be sullied. They derive from a cool and practical assessment of the advantages to be gained from a defence of free association.

First, democrats gain when political arguments are advanced by open debate and settled by ballot. Extremists prefer threat and counter-threat. Far-left and far-right groups often seek to dominate politics by trying to ban each other and using violence to silence their opponents. In this way they feed off each other. Threats made against BNP members and by BNP members in the past 48 hours illustrate this danger.

Secondly, the introduction of a political test for employment might quickly become a serious blow against liberty. If membership of the BNP is regarded as grounds for dismissal, how long before the same is true of membership of other parties or of certain religious sects? In universities, bans that start as injunctions against members of far-right groups have often mutated to much more serious, and broader, threats to free speech than the far Right itself poses.

This potential for a creeping threat to liberty has to be balanced against the immediate harm that allowing BNP members to be employed in public service might cause. There have been moments in history – the American Communist Party in the 1940s, for instance – when a political organisation is an active conspiracy against democracy and seeks to work inside the State in order to subvert it. Where such an organisation has muscle and finance, there may be a case for a ban. The BNP, for the moment, is thankfully nowhere near such a point.

The defenders of liberty should remain willing to trust the power of their ideal.

EU – ENISA asks for new legislation on social networking sites: “(IDG)
Europe’s top Internet security agency, ENISA, called for new legislation to police social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. ‘Social networking sites are very useful social tools but we must make recommendations for how to better protect people from the risks these sites create,’ said Andreas Pirotti, executive director of ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency). He suggested that EU legislation be expanded ‘to cover the taking of photos of people and posting them on the internet,’ he said, adding that currently there is no need to get a person’s consent in order to post a photo of them. He also said there is a ‘crucial need’ to raise awareness about how social networking sites work. Few people realize that they can be offered up as friends to people they don’t know. Also, many people don’t realize that it’s almost impossible to erase material once it has appeared on the internet, Pirotti said.”

(Via QuickLinks Update.)

MySpace suicide case based on breach of terms and conditions: “A US woman has been found guilty of perpetrating an online hoax because she violated MySpace’s terms and conditions, potentially setting a precedent that a violation of contract terms could lead to criminal convictions.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

US – Lovestruck MySpace teen not guilty of harassment, court says: “(Iconoclast blog)
by Declan McCullagh. NeW York State prosecutors decided to charge Isaiah Rodriguez, 18, of aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child over a series of MySpace.com messages professing his ardent devotion to a 14-year-old girl. Fortunately, the New York City criminal court thought otherwise. In a ruling on April 4, Judge Michael Gerstein in Brooklyn hels that while the actions of a love-struck teenager may well be foolish, reckless, or otherwise acts which might not be expected from a mature adult, they are not, without more, elevated to crimes.”

(Via QuickLinks Update.)