Teen Charged with "Transmission of False Data"

at0m writes "According to this story by the Providence Journal, a 15 year old set up a fake teacher's account at SchoolNotes.com, a site where teachers can leave class notes, homework assignments and links to educational web sites for their students, which "depicted the teacher as an unpopular homosexual who molests children and dogs." A representitive of SchoolNotes.com said that they do not use the passcodes system because "the Internet was meant to be open, and with every layer of security, it just causes less openness." Maybe SchoolNotes can take some of the blame. The article concludes, "no matter what you do, somebody can track it."" Sounds like he needs to contact the Rhode Island CLU. Emailing "it's sunny today" when it's raining is a misdemeanor in Rhode Island?

Why this is a criminal case.

[Ex Machina]

I'm from Rhode Island. In our lame little state it is ILLEGAL to use false information aobut yourself on the net. Goodbye pseudonymity! Here 's a shitty editorial on it [projo.com]
[e-mail] [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]

Why this is a criminal case.

[Ex Machina]

I'm from Rhode Island. In our lame little state it is ILLEGAL to use false information aobut yourself on the net. Goodbye pseudonymity! Here is a shitty editorial on it [projo.com]
[e-mail] [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]

Wrong reasons though.

[Anomie-ous Cow-ard]

Yeah, what the kid did is wrong. But they don't need a "transmission of false information" law to get him, what about good old libel statutes?

"Use of false information", what exactly does this mean? Uh oh, i put a short fiction on the net. Blatantly false! Too bad M$ doesn't have a Rhode Island branch, or we could go after their Linux Myths page for all those falsities. Some people consider the Bible and other religious texts false, does this law outlaw them as well? At least we don't have to worry about RI websites trying to convince us that 2+2=5, since that's mathematically false. Students will love this if teacher gives an online true-false quiz. And what of indeterminate statements? "Vi is better than Emacs!" isn't objectively true or false, it depends on the particular application and the attitude of the individual.

Yes, i'm using some rather unlikely examples here; the purpose is to get you to think about the possibilities without being distracted by the defamation of the teacher's character. What exactly is the point of the law? If the falshood is actually damaging, can't it be brought up under libel/slander, truth in advertising, or other more clearly defined laws? And if the falshood isn't damaging, is there a point at all?

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Re:Why this is a criminal case.

[at0m]

Maybe you meant This shitty editorial [projo.com] on it.

Re:Just desserts

[jflynn]

Typically though, wouldn't this be a civil case? I agree that there should be accountability, but do we want people being arrested because they *may* have published false information thru the internet? Should we lock up the staff of the National Enquirer too? How bout Rush? He's malicious and wrong quite often.

Freedom of Speech?

[hornerj]

I am not sure, but this doesn't fall in the "Fire" catagory. No legal punishment should be implemented. As for defamation of character, that is a civil issue. First Post???

Just desserts

[else...if]

I'm normally the first person to defend free speech, but I would put malicious, knowing falsehood outside of the protected area. I see no constitutional right to damage someone's character with attacks known to be untrue. If he had believed his accusations to be true I would consider it protected, but he knew that he was misleading people in a way damaging to the teacher's reputation. A $500 penalty seems perfectly reasonable.