Is this new law even legal?

[AWB]

I’m all for protecting children from online pedoes, gullible seniors who are helping Nigerian princes, and love-lorn shut-ins who only want to help their online SO come “visit”. But is this new Texas law (effective tomorrow) enforceable, constitutional, or even a good idea?

The way the article sounds to me is this: it wants to criminalize people who set up fake Facebook, MySpace, etc. accounts in order to spoof, that is, intentionally defraud others.

But (not mentioned in the article) what if you just create an identity that isn’t you just so you can socialize? Or, if you create another (fake) account besides your “real you” account so that the former identity can set you “gifts” to the various social games (Puzzled Hearts, FarmTown, SocialCity)? Is that also going to be considered “spoofing” or “fraud”, and worthy of prosecution? What if I created both accounts when I lived out of state, and then moved to Texas? And how is this even going to be prosecutable if no victims are involved?

[Nametag]

There is a victim involved; your article is entirely misleading, as it leaves out the actual target of the law:

@House Bill 1666

       (a)  A person commits an offense if the person, without
obtaining the other person's consent and with the intent to harm,
defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person, uses the name or
persona of another person to:
                 (1)  create a web page on a commercial social
networking site or other Internet website; or
             (2)  [to] post or send one or more messages on or
through a commercial social networking site or other Internet
website, other than on or through an electronic mail program or
message board program...

[Koxinga]

But what if there’s a real person out there named Heywood Jablomey? I’d hate to have assumed his identity and then see him press charges.

[Frylock]

@Koxinga

But what if there’s a real person out there named Heywood Jablomey? I’d hate to have assumed his identity and then see him press charges.

The law specifies that you’re committing a crime if your intent is to harm or threaten someone.

Heywood wouldn’t be the one pressing charges. It would be the state. And the victim wouldn’t be Heywood. The victim would be the person you were trying to harm or threaten.

[AWB]

So the characters from “Eureka” can keep sending me gifts, y’think?

[DrFidelius]

… damn.
I better see if the Dr has any Facebook Friends in Texas. I would hate to be accused of defrauding them, given that this on-line persona is almost entirely fictional.

(ETA: The Dr’s Friends list includes a talking gorilla, a very small child with a very large moustache, a squirrel with a power ring, a Steampunk rat who lives in a top hat, the Emperor of the multiverse and several less likely characters. I hope they are not affecetd.)

[robert_columbia]

@Nametag

There is a victim involved; your article is entirely misleading, as it leaves out the actual target of the law:

and, it involves, as an element of the offense, “intent to harm,
defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person”. Now, practically speaking, I don’t think setting up an online persona for giggles or to detach your online activities from your real life identity necessarily involves such intent. Remember that laws are read in context with the entirety of the statute book and case law as a whole - you just can’t say that “defraud” here means something different and broader than the generally agreed-upon definition without a lot of basis for such a belief.

[bunnymom]

I heard about this on the news this morning. My first impression was that this is meant to provide the needed legal framework so public figures in Texas (I’m thinking politicians) can sue if someone puts up a “Rick Perry - Kitten Stomper, Baby Eater” type spoof page. Am I just getting old & paranoid? Or does anyone else think so too?

[Sailboat]

@bunnymom

I heard about this on the news this morning. My first impression was that this is meant to provide the needed legal framework so public figures in Texas (I’m thinking politicians) can sue if someone puts up a “Rick Perry - Kitten Stomper, Baby Eater” type spoof page. Am I just getting old & paranoid? Or does anyone else think so too?

Just old and paranoid. But I’d bring the kittens inside, just in case. I’ve seen that guy’s eyes.