Laws are having a difficult time catching up with the times and when legislators try to create legislation to update them, sometimes their ignorance of technology creates more problems than the laws are intended to solve.
Take for example the change to the definition of “internet identifiers” that will become effective in Florida this coming October. The new law requires registered citizens to register each URL they communicate through… Not every username they post under or every domain name… but every URL.
This very domain; www.floridaactioncommittee.org, has almost 900 urls. Every posting is a different URL. This article is found at the URL http://floridaactioncommittee.org/internet-identifiers-and-the-constitution, for example. Someone who is a regular contributor to our forum would conceivably have to register hundreds of URLs under the “floridaactioncommittee.org” domain and do so daily, in advance of use, or risk a third degree FELONY!
At the risk of years in jail for innocently forgetting to register a perfectly legal comment in our forum (or simply to avoid the hassle), many registrants will simply elect to forego commenting or contributing to floridaactioncommittee.org and that will dramatically impair our ability to disseminate and exchange information – which is one of our missions.
This is what is called “chilling” free speech and it’s one of the arguments in our Internet Identifier challenge that is forthcoming. Not only will the new laws impede your ability to participate in discussions on our site, but on most any site. For those whose jobs require it (nowadays which jobs don’t) it will impede your ability to work. With social media and electronic communication long having replaced letter writing, it also impedes your ability to communicate with family and friends.
These laws don’t just serve to impede illegal online communication – but ALL online communication. While narrow exceptions are carved out for banking and retail, exceptions are not carved out for familial correspondence, employment or any of the thousands of other reasons someone might want or need to communicate in the modern world.
The new law is so brazen that it expressly states, “including anonymous speech”. So your ability (and constitutional right) to comment anonymously to this article saying ‘you think the law is baloney and legislators are idiots for passing it’ is blown, because you will now have to list your identity and the URL you posted to (and the legislators will teach you not to call them idiots anymore in the form of more frequent “compliance checks” or other retaliation).
Keeping up with the times and crafting laws that are constitutionally sound requires a more than basic understanding of technology, otherwise a floodgate of litigation will inevitably follow.
Stay tuned for an update on our litigation…
Check this out! Not really RSO related but very interesting. There is actually a link in the article where you can weigh in on this policy. If you know anyone that travels internationally make sure you tell them that this IS NOT mandatory and I for one would refuse it every time. What should bother everyone is that they are going to keep this info and can use it how ever they wish …..
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/24/12026364/us-customs-border-patrol-online-account-twitter-facebook-instagram
I am getting more frustrated with the state of Florida. They remove the entrapment law so they won’t get in trouble, they punish us for life by being registered, even though my sentence is only 5 years probation, they track the apps I use for communications, and now this? I am on house arrest, not by sentencing, but by my counties restrictions. I can be violated just by walking off my property. And even though I am allowed to leave the county to work per the judge and my PO, every day I risk being violated by doing so. Where can I find a list of states that don’t treat sex offenders like we shouldn’t be allowed to live?
Any state is better than Florida
Are they serious? it seems like we don’t have enough problems with the existing laws which are made to harass offenders. Perhaps they want us to move out of Florida or outside the US all together.In my opinion when some one pay his debt to society he should have his civil rights back and be treated like any other citizen.Why they don;t treat other offenders with different charges the same way.
The constitution stands for the equal rights to all the citizens of this COUNTRY?
So in reading the bill and subsection concerning internet identifiers, how is this not unconstitutional to have to provide any screen name, url, or login name to anything unrelated to a registrants offense? This is clearly an affront to freedom of speech and has this bill been challenged by the ACLU?
Keith – if you keep up with our site, you’ll see we have an action challenging this in the works.
Why are there so many comments and concerns on this board re: this new law? It’s because, in general, registered citizens are LAW ABIDING, and they are deeply frustrated because these new laws are so difficult to understand and abide by.
While I look at this and am just APPALLED by the sheer ignorance of this law, I am also looking at what kind of steeping stone this will give law enforcement. I can see this stepping forward into a law that will require every sex offender to have a internet tracking device installed on every computer, laptop, table, and cell phone that they have that will notify law enforcement of where they go online. This is scary!
In today’s constantly evolving internet, trying to keep track of every URL BEFORE you go there is LITERALLY impossible. Let’s say you are on eBay and want to find a car part. In the search bar you will type year, make, model, and part name. But do YOU know what the URL will be when you click “search”? No, because the URL is GENERATED at the moment you click search. If you waited 10 seconds to hit search, the URL will have changed!!! So how can we even TRY to post every url BEFORE we go to it? IT IS LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO DO SO!
Remember – it’s every URL used for communication – so if you bid on an item or ask the seller a question, yes, you will need to register the URL of the item. If you simply browse without communicating you wont.
so when i collaborate on a white board or something similar with others about trade secrets, proprietary information i would have to disclose that address where this private information is? also if im in a prate chat on a chat server somewhere where i’m discussing my company’s finical information preparing our quarterly or yearly results or discussing acquiring another business, or upcoming product release. i will now be required to violate Federal SEC Laws in order not to be arrested by the state then the feds will arrest me for insider trading for releasing information before it should of been released. humm sounds like a big catch 22 what prison is better? fed. or state
Excellent Point!!!
Just came across this article.
For those who don’t feel like clicking, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice now bans inmates from social media. They are not allowed to keep a social media account with a contraband cellphone (obviously!). However, if someone on the *outside* maintains an account for the offender, the TDCJ will ask that it be taken down.
Think there are some obvious parallels here. Will be interesting to see how that one plays out.
http://www.cnet.com/news/texas-inmates-banned-from-social-media/#ftag=MSF491fea7
When will it all end? Some states are getting better while others continue to get worse and worse
A persons E-Mail is like a social security number. You can’t do anything without it. This should be all that should needed to identify a user.To find a job is impossible without computer. Like all things on interweb you have to use e-mail to set up account.The phone is an encyclopedia. Dear God, go by rules for decades.But can’t wake up the morning.
I do indeed hope to hear more about your litigation.
One of the things that concerns me is that, given the way the web works these days, can I commit a felony without even knowing it? Should I post something, have it noticed by someone who likes it, then have it shared by that person, and have my post end up on a different URL than I had registered all without my knowledge, does that constitute a violation? And do I have the funds and fortitude to argue that it doesn’t when I get arrested for it?
Just want to point out also, for those that are going to have to abide by this crap, those popular ‘slideshow’ articles have a separate URL for each slide….
and this
http://nationalrsol.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Judge-Beatty-Memorandum-Opinion-and-Order.pdf
look at this, this may help
http://nationalrsol.org/blog/2016/04/27/federal-court-guts-nc-premises-statute-permanently-enjoins-prosecution/
I just want to know who is going to enforce this?? Probation officers are so overloaded now they can’t even keep up with just their daily routine functions. And detectives have bluntly told me they have better things to do and worry about technical violations of registered citizens, especially here in Jacksonville where gun crime, break ins, and gang violence are the norm. And the other thing is, is this retroactive, or does it just apply to people arrested after Oct 2016?
They want facebook, twitter, any chat services you use, email all social networking must be registered. The URL are referring to Internet Identifier that you are registered and use. Not every website you visit or comment on.
You are incorrect, JV. Effective October 2016 you will be required to register every URL you comment on.
so to clarify, are they saying by law you have to report and register every single url you go to everyday you use your computer? Wouldnt that mean you basically would be registering your visits every single day?How would they be able to monitor every single place you go, come to your house and look at your computer? And if so they would need a warrant to have access to your computer? Just wondering how this would be able to be enforced. And does it apply to people convicted after oct. 2016?
Every URL you communicate through – not visit – just communicate.
It applies to every registrant. Not sure how it will be enforced, but if caught, it will be grounds to charge someone with a felony.
so if i order something on the internet it might while i’m browsing when i lick the next page button i’m in effect communicating with that website. any click or any text that you view on your computer you are technically communicating. very vague law unless it goes into great detail on exactly what is considered communicating. when i order something and make an account just to order one time, then when i actually order, then when i confirm the order, then when i provide feedback or a review on that order, etc…