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Cyberbullies to be prosecuted

Threats aren’t protected as free speech
Fri Mar 19 2010, 13:08

A US COURT has ruled that threats by cyberbullies are not protected as free speech.

The California state court of appeals ruled that bullies can be charged with hate crimes and defamation if they post threats online, reports Wired.

The case was bought to court after a teenage boy launched a self-promoting website with his aspirations of becoming an actor or singer. Some of his classmates at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles saw the website and posted offensive comments in a way that only teenaged boys can. The site was taken down and the boy's father withdrew him from school so the police could conduct an investigation.

The police investigation stalled, so the family sued some of the pupils and the school's board of directors. The parents' lawyers filed the lawsuit alleging hate crimes, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress over the online posts, which included death threats and accusations about the boy's sexual orientation.

The case was rejected in 2008 but the appeal was granted. The court ruled that the defendants "did not demonstrate that the posted message is free speech."

A lawyer for the defendants said they will appeal to the California Supreme Court. µ

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Comments
I agree with the State Court.

Bullying (including defamation and illegal threats) is criminal no matter where, when and how it's performed.
If somebody is so stupid they do it on-line with written evidence that's easy to trace back to the author, then the better for the law enforcement.

posted by : Olle P, 22 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Maybe they should microwave...

...any judge foolish enough to even allow a foolish lawsuit like that.

posted by : Boris, 22 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Remember : this is america we are talking about

Yes only in Amercia: the same great place that allowed a dog owner to sue a microwave manufacturer because the instructions failed to point out that putting a live animal inside it will result in the death of that animal.

The lady in question routinely dried her dog in her old electric fan oven after shampooing it, when she bought a microwave she used that to dry her dog, which, suprisingly, according to some astonished American onlookers, resulted in the animals demise.

So yes, you can sue for whatever you like in America and some judge somewhere will be dumb enough to uphold it.

posted by : 99flake, 21 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Blame the parents.. too.

Don't put all the blame on the kids. They don't belong on the internet and their parents failed their responsibilities and forgot to teach them some manners and common sense.

posted by : Jammed, 21 March 2010 Complain about this comment
"and accusations about the boy's sexual orientation."

Okay, raise your hand if you're a male who made it all the way through high school without being referred to as some form of homosexual. Uh-huh, so that's, um, 0% of the male population.

Unless it was comprised of super-awesomely threatening language they need to throw that part out.

posted by : Jason Goatcher, 20 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Icepick = efficiency

While an icepick might be an efficient means to help cleanse the gene pool, we need to create new jobs building new prisons for the degenerates. Then we can create jobs by maintaining the degenerates in prison. That should help the economy and society. An icepick is a good idea, but it may be too efficient.

posted by : Bill Gates, 20 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Names

So let me get this straight guy-using-the-name-bill-gates, you want to stick an icepick in their heads right?

Since subtlety doesn't work on the internet I'll spell it out: you sound the exact same type.

posted by : W.-, 20 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Works for me

Might as well get the social degenerates into the slammer as soon as possible. We really need to clean up the gene pool.

posted by : Bill Gates, 20 March 2010 Complain about this comment
The real problem is...

The real problem is that all the riff raff of society is allowed on the internet these days where they can put up their inane webpages, blogs, etc. without any kind of effort. There used to be a bar that had to be reached before people could publish things online. Now, with all these social notworking sites, it's just too easy for people to put themselves online where they become easy targets of all the anonymous trolls. You wouldn't post all your private details, your picture, your aspirations, etc. on signposts in a playground, so why would you do it online and expect "protection" from real life?

Maybe all this "cyberbullying" will help people realize that the Internet is not a nice place. When you go out into the world with everyone else, expect to have your "rights" violated, and learn to deal with it. In fact, if this teen wants to become an actor, he's going to need to grow much thicker skin, or he's going to quit at his first-of-many rejections.

posted by : BB, 20 March 2010 Complain about this comment
em

@mitchel

I think the death threat part is what happened to sticks and stones.

posted by : thechevron, 19 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Emotional Wimps.

Whatever happened to sticks and stones?

posted by : Mitchell, 19 March 2010 Complain about this comment
Webmaster

The defendants should counter-sue the boy for providing a platform for, and hosting, illegal speech.

posted by : egil, 19 March 2010 Complain about this comment
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