Need Info On Cyber Crimes & Cyber Laws

hey, I need to know some "cyber laws" stuff. Here's the overview: this kid in my web design class at school goes onto his friend's website and makes a post about me calling me a ******* ****t (censored for a reason) and here's the part I don't get: he naturally hates me. I don't talk to him or make any other contact with him. THEN, on myspace, some other idiot decides to flame me in my school's forum and then it goes WAY BEYOND flamming... I mean, it gets personal. The thing on MySpace stopped (and I've repeatedly contacted MySpace asking them to remove the topics and nothing) but I found yet another post on the forum.In the last post, he says that if I read it, go to this link. The link is a Google search of "free speech", which I'm perfectly fine with. BUT, couldn't this count as slander/libel (they're quite possibly talking behind my back).One of them has probably been hacking my site too (the one I pay for, not here). I just wanted to know what the United States law says about stuff like that. I've been thinking that I might take 'em to court for verbal harassment, slander/libel, and anything else this fits under.I've shown the offensive content to school administrators, but they can't do anything because it happened outside of school (I figured this, but I might as well show them). I'm waiting for these idiots to threaten me so I can take 'em to court for all of that. As for the website, I've contacted the kid's host to see what they think of cyber harassment as the first post was NOT freedom of speech. In my research of it, personally attacking another person is NOT free speech.To make sure this stays Internet related, can anyone point me to some "cyber laws" for the United States, please? I want to scare them with all the legal stuff I can before I make it a full harassment lawsuit. From what I've been told, I COULD nab them for harassment (verbal & written) and anything else under the sun.Also, one of them tried to hack my (paid) website. They "kinda" succeeded, but I'm too good for them. I made the login script not allow logins from my account. What kind of punishments are involved for litterally hacking a website? Also, to clearify some things, my password was like gd63s5f2 so it had to be pretty hard to hack.Thanks for any info! It makes me sick when people think the Internet is "law free".[N]FP.S. Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this... it is related to the Internet ("Cyber crime")

Edited March 19, 2006 by nightfox (see edit history)

Ok, here's an expensive but very helpful book-type thing that covers slander and libel in GREAT detail...If you're going to court seriously, the money's nothing compared to what you'll be spending. If you're making idle threats, it's a bit much. Basically the advice it gives is "You might be able to win your case, if you spend lots of time and money. So you ought to have a good case."http://www.dancingwithlawyers.com/ publications/fighting-slander.shtmlIt's long, but extremely thorough and good for any scenario.I recommend the book, but not suing anybody. After reading it, you'll understand the implications that go along with this type of thing.If you really want to read it, but don't want to fork over $20, I'm sure you can find it for free somewhere.

This is an interesting situation. I know I did a report on cyber crime last year, but I didn't hit on this topic too precisely unfortunately. However, based on the various things they've done I would say you could get them on some charge or another.

If they are specific about who they are referring to (on the blogs or wherever) then you could possibly get them on harassment charges. The hacking of your website is trickier but would probably fall under general cyber crime laws that state that any intentional invasion of privacy (hacking your locked account) is cyber crime.

Another thing to note is that, as far as I know, alot of the individual states in America have their own variations on what is considered various cyber crimes. Checking into your states' cyber laws would be a worthwhile activity, possibly contacting someone in the law department of a local university?

Obviously everything I've said is based on year old memories of information form a project... they've done a good job with improving cyber crime laws over the past 3-5 years but they still don't have them all ironed out to a perfect form. Definitely worth checking into furtur though.

Websites I would reccomend checking out from when I did cybercrime research include:
https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ccips
http://www.nw3c.org/ (I think...)
http://www.cybercrimelaw.net/

Yes, every state/country has different laws...Unfortunately, many are very loose and unspecified. Thanks to the weak (at best) Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Lots of internet- related laws are based on Clinton's DMCA.*sigh*I wish lawmakers would... well, for a lack of a better term- "get with it."

Theres a handful of laws snuck into the patriot act about cyber crimes, but the ones I know of wouldn't apply here... most just cover the governments *bottom* if they want to take someone down for a "cyber" "crime"

A lot of people misinterpret "free speech" as you're allowed to say what you like when you like. Which is not correct, your "free speech" allows you to say what you like when you like liberally without intervention or a means to prevent your voice. However there are laws that override this due to the context of your speech. If you say the sky is green, no problem, that's your right to say, and people can choose to believe you or not, but if someone tried censoring you, then that's when your freedom is speech is violated.However, if someone said I'm going to kill the president, then that is not interpretted under your freedom of speech, that is a felony/offense/threat and violates laws that will override it and instead of preventing your free speech, it takes a different action towards it. They're not looking at preventing your free speech, they're looking at stopping a threat. Only the evidence that suggests it wasn't an act of free speech but an act of misconduct.Hopefully that's how "free speech" is interpretted. Mostly basing this off Open Source software though, where you are free to do what you like as long as you're within your rights to do so and abide by other rights in place.Cheers,MC

2004 was a good year for criminals keen to use technology to fleece consumers...Google sometimes seems like half my life. I start my days looking at Google News on the Internet, and often spend hours using the Google search engine to learn more about subjects I am going to write about. Little did I know I was dancing with the devil. It's true. For the sake of this very rich company getting still richer, Google has agreed to collaborate with China in subverting the Internet's promise as an extraordinary means of liberation and in keeping the Chinese people subjugated. More specifically, it is reported, Google will practice Chinese-style censorship, ensuring none of the 100 million Web surfers in China can use Google to find anything by typing in such words as "democracy" or "human rights," or by trying to locate nongovernment information on such topics as Tibetan freedom, Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong religion or atrocities committed by their own officials...

It's true. For the sake of this very rich company getting still richer, Google has agreed to collaborate with China in subverting the Internet's promise as an extraordinary means of liberation and in keeping the Chinese people subjugated.

I do find that very appalling on Google's part--but think about it. Suppose Google decided not to go with China--then what? The Chinese government isn't going to change just because Google doesn't work with them. It won't be any better for the Chinese people to lose a search engine--they'll just switch over and use the ever-censored Baidu.com. Lost business for Google, but it doesn't make the situation in China any better. (Although it probably makes the situation in our hearts a bit better. )

 

The key situation in this is not to just scream and rant and boycott Google. It's far more useful to direct those same actions to the Chinese government. Since when was Google powerful enough to change the Beijing regime? It's not. So if we want change, indirectly ranting at the Chinese gov't through Google isn't going to work--we ought to suggest it to the Chinese government directly. And even after all this censoring, the government in China still banned the English Google homepage for quite a while.

 

@ mastercomputers, I agree. The first amendment (considering that you're in the U.S.), doesn't protect speech that involves threats or could induce violent behaviors in either yourself or others. Like, I could say, "I dislike president Bush," but I can't say, "I'm going to murder president Bush." That latter is a threat and not tolerated.

 

I've shown the offensive content to school administrators, but they can't do anything because it happened outside of school (I figured this, but I might as well show them).

This is shock to me. They can't? Most students are complaining about the fact that they can.... But I think they can at least help you out by reporting it to the police, since they have more authority/convincing abilities. As for Internet laws, it depends on what country you live in still. Each person on the Internet must still abide by the laws of their country, hence the whole censorship incident in China but since this person is obviously from your school...no threatening speech applies.