Saturday, May 9, 2009

Proposed New Law Says: "Upset Me - Go to Prison!"

More government, more laws, less freedom, less personal responsibility... Welcome to the nanny state. Jcal
 ---------------
Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com
 
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber
 
Date: Sat, 9 May 2009 12:52:38 To: ip
Subject: [IP] Proposed New Law Says: "Upset Me - Go to Prison!"
 
 
 
 
Begin forwarded message:
 
From: Lauren Weinstein
Date: May 9, 2009 12:19:34 PM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Proposed New Law Says: "Upset Me - Go to Prison!"
 
 
 
  Proposed New Federal Law Says: "Upset Me - Go to Prison!"
 
  http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000562.html
 
 
Greetings. I sometimes speak and write about contentious and
controversial topics. I like to think that most of the time I have
the angels on my side, but certainly there are some people who
disagree with me on certain issues, and who don't hesitate about
telling me so -- sometimes loudly, repeatedly, and even impolitely.
 
I have a pretty thick skin, but golly, [sniff], I do have feelings.
Some of those messages can be pretty, well, distressing emotionally,
ya' know?
 
But if a new proposal in Congress becomes law, I might be able to send
those disagreeing folks to federal prison! Now that's entertainment!
 
This new power to incarcerate would come courtesy of H.R. 1966,
proposed by California Democrat Linda Sanchez and around a dozen
co-sponsors, who obviously feel that the first amendment to the U.S.
Constitution has the elastic properties of Silly Putty.
 
The bill, now in the House Judiciary Committee says, "Whoever
transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with
the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial
emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support
severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
 
What's going on of course is that this legislation is being framed as
an attack on "cyberbullying" -- the actual bill is called the Megan
Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act, named for the 13-year-old who
tragically committed suicide last year after receiving upsetting
MySpace messages.
 
The legislation, by the way, doesn't limit its coverage to Internet
messages -- it would also apparently sweep in text messages, phone
calls, Web sites, radio and television programs and commentaries ...
and so on.
 
This is yet another example of seemingly well-intentioned legislation
that would create a firestorm of presumably unintentional collateral
damage to constitutionally protected free speech.
 
You can make your own list of problematic aspects, but here's a few to
get started. Determining "intent" as specified by the legislation is
a can of worms in and of itself. When a collection agency repeatedly
calls a debtor and harasses them about payments, is their intent to
cause them severe emotional distress to get them to pay up?
 
When someone sets up a Web site critical of a company's officers, what
is the intent? Is the intent to get better service, cause severe
emotional distress, or both? Would every hit on that Web site count
as "repeated" behavior?
 
Clearly such a law would be a cash cow for psychologists. As expert
witnesses on both sides at the associated trials, they'd be needed to
argue about the true "intent" of defendants.
 
Well, you get the idea. Due to its very broad scope and impact on
what we normally consider to be free speech, this legislation, if
approved by Congress, faces a litigation path longer than the route
from Munchkinland to Oz, and with a seemingly rather low probability
of successfully reaching the Emerald City.
 
Presumably the sponsors of this legislation are fully aware of this,
and naturally I wouldn't want to suggest that perhaps what's really
going on with this proposal is political grandstanding.
 
But if the legislation ever does become law and passes judicial
muster, my critics had better watch their steps. You wouldn't want to
hurt my feelings and end up in the slammer, would you?
 
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
  for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
 
 
 
 
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Friday, May 8, 2009

Today on This Week in Startups: Seth from Meebo (36m uniques, wha-wha--what?!?!)

Friends,
 
Today on This Week in Startups we have the CEO of Meebo.com Seth
Sternberg. If you don't know Seth and Meebo go visit their Quantcast
chart and you'll see that they have 36M unique visitors each month (
http://www.quantcast.com/meebo.com ). For reference that is 10m more
than Digg and double Twitter.
 
Find out why at 1PM PST/4pm EST (i.e. in one hour!) live at
http://www.thisweekinstartups.com
 
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on itunes in video: http://tinyurl.com/cxfo3y
Subscribe to This Week in Startups on itunes in audio: http://tinyurl.com/odky7v
 
Special thanks to our sponsors DNA Mail ( https://www.dnamail.com/ )
and UStream.tv ( http://www.ustream.tv/ )
 
best regards,
 
Jason
 
My travel/speaking Schedule:
-------------------------------------------------
May 19th: The Founder Institute, Silicon Valley
http://www.founderinstitute.com/courses
 
June 1-2nd: Conversational Marketing Summit, New York City
http://federatedmedia.net/events/cmsummit-agenda
 
June 3rd , Startup 2009, New York City
http://www.businessinsider.com/startup2009
 
September 14-15th, TechCrunch50, San Francisco
http://www.techcrunch50.com/2009/blog/

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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

95 degrees outside Lakers game... Let's do this Kobe!

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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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Spam of the day: Are you interested in selling calacanis.com?

I love it!
Jcal

---------------
Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com


From: Grace
Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 19:35:33 -0500
To: <jason@calacanis.com>
Subject: Are you interested in selling calacanis.com?

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More M2 Goodness! We're in the home stretch!!! Can't wait to show you guys Mahalo 2.0!!! #M2

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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More Car pool cameras

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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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On Car Pool podcast... Super tiny Sony cameras are amazing!

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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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I drink a shot of this every day... Feel like superman!

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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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BREAKING: Amazon Unveils Larger Kindle, Deals With Newspapers -- will this save newspapers?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: WSJ.com Editors
Date: Wed, May 6, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Subject: WSJ TECHNOLOGY ALERT: Amazon Unveils Larger Kindle, Deals
With Newspapers
 
__________________________________
Technology Alert
from The Wall Street Journal
 
 
Amazon unveiled a new e-reader, the Kindle DX, with a larger screen
and a $489 price tag. The company also announced deals with major
textbook publishers, including Pearson, and with the New York Times,
Boston Globe and Washington Post. The newspapers will offer the Kindle
DX for a reduced price on long-term commitments to subscriptions.
 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124162110396691937.html#mod=djemalertTECH
 
Live blog of Amazon's press conference:
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/05/06/live-blogging-amazons-press-conference/

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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Brentwood community meeting... I'm getting into local politics. :)


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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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Spam of the day


Today's spam of the day... Discuss. :)
 
------Original Message------
From: Search Engine Listing
To: Jason Calacanis
ReplyTo: notifications@mysearchenginelisting.com
Subject: Re: homeownersofbrentwood.com - ready to be listed
Sent: May 5, 2009 4:16 PM
 
Hi,
 
Congratulations on getting your new online business started.
We just received your information for your new online store.
 
In order to get your website listed in the major search engines,
go to http://www.mysearchenginelisting.com
 
This process takes less than five minutes to set up and ensures
an increase in visibility for the life of your business.
 
You currently qualify for a promo code which waives all
setup fees:
 
Your promo code is "1593". Enter it at http://www.mysearchenginelisting.com
 
Based on your website's start date, your promo code for: homeownersofbrentwood.com
is valid through: 5/11/09.
 
Congratulations on starting your new online business!
 
Sincerely,
 
MySearchEngineListing.com
 
 
 
To change email notification options:
http://www.yournetworkoptions.com/
 
 
 
 
 
 
Apartado 5956, Panama City, Panama Zona 6
 
 
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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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Sunday, May 3, 2009

Matthew Perry with Kevin Pollak Chat Show team!


So cool having Matthew Perry on Kevin Pollak's Chat Show!
 
www.kevinpollakschatshow.com

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Thanks to DNAMail.com and ustream for sponsoring the first This Week in Startups! #twist


Thanks to my friends at DNAMail and ustream for sponsoring the first
week of This Week in Startups. I read the live commercial for them at
the end of the show.... during it I asked folks on Twitter to thank
the sponsors and there were dozens (maybe hundreds) of tweets!!!
Thanks so much to the fans for thanking the sponsors for me (is that
meta enough?).
 
Social Media for the win!
 
There is one sponsorship slot left (Audible?). $1,000 a show/10 show
run.... email alex@calacanis.com for details.
 
www.thisweekinstartups.com

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@loic in the new york times Facebook story


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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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@answers What's your perfect Sunday? (Me: NYT, garden, puppies and mocha) M$5


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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Just passed telsa sig number 93 in santa monica... I need my plaque!


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Jason@Calacanis.com | Mobile: 310-456-4900
http://www.calacanis.com | http://www.mahalo.com
Executive Assistant: admin@calacanis.com

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This Week in Startups at 1PM PST today; Our Guest: Brian Alvey of CrowdFusion.com


Team Jason,
 
The first live episode of "This Week in Startups" will be today in two
short hours.... 1PM PST/4PM EST.
 
1. You can tune in live at http://www.thisweekinstartups.com/
 
2. You can ask questions on twitter by putting #twist at the end of
your tweet and/or directing them to me @jasoncalacanis
 
3. Our first guest is Brian Alvey of CrowdFusion (and my partner from
Weblogs, Inc. and CyberSurfer magazine!)
 
You can read more about Brian at the following links:
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Alvey
http://www.brianalvey.com/
http://twitter.com/frankensite
(let's all follow him and see if he can grow from 615 followers to 1,000!).
 
Feel free to forward this email or post it on your
blog/tumblr/posterous/facebook!
 
all the best,
 
Jason
---------------------
Jason McCabe Calacanis
CEO, http://www.Mahalo.com
Mobile: 310-456-4900
My blog: http://www.calacanis.com
My Mailing list: http://www.tinyurl.com/jasonslist
AOL IM/Skype: jasoncalacanis

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