Internet Identifiers and the constitution
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; 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…
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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.