Cyberstalking

I was reading through a variety of news archives when I came across this Washington Times story from April 10 entitled FBI arrests man for cyberstalking.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20040410-101617-6939r.htm

What surprised me were the details of the stalking which included the following:

Virtual harassment with e-mails of amorphous threats
Creepy mind games
Public humiliation
Lies about her sexual history and character

He was charged with 26 felony counts of internet harassment, each carrying a maximum penalty of two years in jail and $250,000 fine. I was wondering if you folks had any thoughts on the subject. Do you think this was an overreaction on the part of the feds? Does our association with Second Life make us more vulnerable (due to increase exposure to people in a very graphic world) or safer (given the protection of the Lindens.)

I would love to hear your input.

Can you cyber stalk an anonymous person?

Can you libel an anonymous person?

Can you steal fictional currency from an anonymous person?

What rights do avatars really have?

I think we should be cautious about simply repurposing all the FL laws without first considering the flexibility and potential that freedom and anarchy gives us in an anonymous, virtual world.


As for the above, absolutely, that was super appropiate.

Emails to coworkers with lies about someone's sexual history?

Yikes!

Great question blaze. I guess indicating one's desire to obtain the RL identity of the victim would be one step of many in the stalking process.

If you want to talk about my reaction to this, just come over to the window of your office, where I'm watching you type this right now...

I KNEW I SENSED A BUNNY HUG PRESENCE AROUND !!! lol

From what I gathered, the person SENDING the the emails was anonymous. The person on the receiving end of it could have been someone the stalker knew.

People seem to need a reminder that what they do to people online will have real life repercussions if they cross the line. Sounds like the stalker got exactly what they deserved.

What rights to privacy does an avatar have?

What if I posted pictures of an av having pixel sex? Could I make money off of it?

Does the herald have to get waivers signed when they take snapshots?

We're pioneers, folks.

My guess is that in a RL situation this could become pretty ugly.

Situations where a jilted ex posts compromising (possibly photo shopped) pictures or very personal information about you such as your prescriptions, credit card numbers, social security number and bank account numbers in a blog or emails them to spammers or co-workers. Pretty ugly stuff.

I suspect that one would need to prove criminal intent or damages before the FBI got involved, hence a harmless AV stalker in SL would be a Linden matter unless they pursued and obtained RL information. (Though I'm not a lawyer and I'm not certain of this, just a common sense type musing).


.

You mean, I can't crash the grid or defraud people out of tons of money? LL is going to stop me from getting another alt, or step in and intervene now? ;P

Well, some of us have businesses in SL.

What if our businesses are being undermined?



I still find the case of someone posting cybersex pictures out on the internet an interesting one.

For some reason, I can see someone feeling very violated about this and trying to complain to the police who would just say - "WTF?"

Taco Rubio should have taken this to its natural conclusion.

I'll answer this in general newspaper terms. If a person is in a public arena, no permission is needed to publish a picture of that person. Permission is needed before a photographer can take pictures of a child in school and when in private dwellings (though most of the time, if a photographer is in a private home, he/she already has permission).

I suppose the same set of rules would apply in a virtual world, though when dealing with an individual, we ask for permission before snapping a picture anyway. It's just poilite.

This topic is not about permissions on images, is about cyberstalking.

Polite, sure, but what if you av is engaged in age play? Do I legally need to ask your permission to write an article about it with the picture?

The myth of anonymity online is just that. It would take about two weeks to locate and file against pretty much anyone who holds an account with a company for access to online services.

To effectively be anonymous, you must have in place a series of fairly esoteric technical tools along with some pretty in-depth technical smarts and even then, there's no guarantee.

I wouldn't think so. While an avatar may be engaged in ageplay, the person behind the avatar is a legal, consenting adult. The rules of photographing children in FL are set up to protect children (many of whom are in foster care), and as such don't apply in SL.

It looks to me like the courts may be redefining the boundary (in the context of online relations) between free speech and harmful speech. Of course in our current political climate, everyone tends to take threatening behavior a bit more seriously than they may have only a few years ago.

You forgot one......sending pics of the ex masturbating to random people for no good reason other than "he hurt my widdle feelin's". No, wasn't me though I did receive the pic.

LOL /*** waves Hi Joseph!!!

Good to see you back BTW - not to steal Amy's thread, just saying.

edited to say... Hell hath no fury like an immature jilted hacker eh?

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I think that yes, it's a very reasonable reason to arrest someone. I'm not sure what "Creepy mind games" and "public humiliation" entails, but Virtual harassment and threats are a real danger. I mean, yes we have this veil of anonmyity around us, but it's not a perfect shield, if a person is desperate enough, it's possible to get a person's name and address.

I think however, that SL gives us more protection, to track a person's real life you need some reocurring information, e-mail addresses, websites, stuff you can check registration on and all that. But with SL all you have to go off of is the name, which for most people is exclusive to SL. E-mail address is hidden since IM e-mail goes through LL (except for a few mishaps i've seen with bouncers and Spam guards that reply directly), and as long as you don't give out any information you'd be fine.

But are the people in SL all safe? I wouldn't say so, I had problems with some extra-creepy people a few times who seemed rather dangerous, and a while back there was a Gorean (A BDSM lifestyle popular online and in SL) serial killer, who'd convince slave girls to meet him in real life where he'd ask them to do sexual things, and if they refused or were reluctant, he'd kill them and stick them in a barrel and throw them in a lake. But anyways, one of the girls he killed he found on a program called Active Worlds which is very similar to SL. So by no means would I say that everyone in SL is absolutely hunky-dory to be trusted.

The simple truth of the matter is that these kinds of people are out there and if the feds can do something about getting them, then all the power to them.

Sorry, Logan, you will have to find some other hobby. At least you will have your memories. And of course the loot.

Well longer than 2 weeks. California and many other jurisdictions have laws the mandate a 21 day notice period before you subpoena the records of a consumer, I fthe consumer is on the ball, he would file a protective order or motion to quash the subpoena and drga the process out two or three months.

It is a little easier in the criminal arena to be sure, but even so, unless some major felony was committed, it is like to take longer than two weeks to get the records and locate the offending party.

So yes, in one sense anonymity is impossible, but discovering someone's Idendity in an admissable manner is a bit trickier and more expensive.

And really the internet is seen as a means of communication and not a virtual location. It is legally treated as a common carrier. Thus a person unsing the internet in california is still subjected to the applicable california law, even if they are accessing websites in thailand. On top of this issue we agree to be bound by california law as part of our TOS. Now this coveres disputes between players and linden labs to be sure.

I think an interesting legal question is whether a TOS would bind a player in a dispute with another player over something in the game. After all, arguably, anything done in SL really affects LL too and could be part of the TOS. Sl is a distinct situation from other uses of the internet, because the SL environment is closed and contained. Which means that in effect all disputes should be regulated as private and internal issues. However, SL creats a situation where the private activities, because they are public in nature, may require the intervention of a 3rd party to enforce the agreement. Who does that? I don't think and AL resident has sued another resident over an inworld transaction. But as we all know the transactions in Sl are much more than play money.

With respect to privacy-I think an avatar in SL has the same expectation of privacy that the player does IRL. The avatar simply manifests the conduct of the player. If you are having cybersex in your home in SL and it gets published in the MM without your consent, then your right to privacy has been violated. (and you all thought building swith walls were simply throwbacks to a longing for RL. Walls define space, especially private space heheh).

I seriously wonder if the argument for a copyright violation would be more effective than the argument for a privacy violation in the case an AV's "private" pictures and conversations being published?

It just seems to me that one is a representation, like art and unless it can be connected to the real life person, it is difficult to prove privacy violation or criminal stalking.

At worse they are a nuisance.

That is until they connect to a real life person, once that happens, then it becomes a very serious situation.

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Except for the fact that really, SL is a communications medium. Just like a chatroom, or a telephone conversation. The visual nature does not alter the fact that what you are doing is a communication between two people and that has the expectation of privacy. I don't need to copyright my conversations in yahoo IMs to have an expectation of privacy, or my private e-mail or snail mail. Don't the let the medium define the expectation. Its a human issue not a technology one.

Avatar mesh deformations are the unique creations of SL residents, as are the attachment combinations associated with the same. SL residents own the intellectual property rights to their creations. Thus, any derivative works based upon those creations, including personal avatars, are subject to intellectual property laws.

Good point - actually my husband and I were just discussing this the other day and wondering if our email was as private as our snail mail. In other words, was the penalty for stealing an email from our email box the same as the penalty for stealing a letter from our snail mail box?

We still aren't sure on that one.

Anyone know?