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Online impersonation banned starting in New Year

احدث اجدد واروع واجمل واشيك Online impersonation banned starting in New Year

Once just a cruel joke, assuming another person's identity on the Internet and fabricating an e-mail or Facebook account is no longer a laughing matter.
A state law effective Jan. 1, authored by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, makes online impersonation, when it seeks to harm someone, illegal.
"As a Silicon Valley legislator, I'm nothing but enthusiastic about technology. But the question is, is the technology used wisely and appropriately?" Simitian asked this week. "This e-personation' is one area where some constraint appeared necessary."
Falsely sourced e-mails, tweets and Web posts have become ubiquitous online, and it's not uncommon for someone to create a Facebook or MySpace account in someone else's name. If this is done to "harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud," according to Senate Bill 1411, it will be a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
One of the highest profile stories of using false pretenses on the Internet has been the case of Lori Drew. The Missouri mom was accused in a California court, though later acquitted, of setting up a MySpace profile of a fictitious teenage boy to taunt a 13-year-old friend of her daughter. The friend later hung herself.
With social media so new and its legal framework budding, Simitian's office acknowledges that what exactly constitutes criminal e-personation remains to be seen. His law allows district attorneys to prosecute if they think a crime has been committed 
"The goal here really is to try to change behavior [not test the law in court]," Simitian said.
A primary driver of the new law was a colleague's tale of impersonation.
Carl Guardino, CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, approached Simitian after an e-mail went out falsely in his name, purporting an apology for something "ugly" that he didn't do.
"People who knew me knew it wasn't me. But thousands of people who don't know me received this, too," Guardino explained. "Somebody was out to harm me. I went to the police and they said, Terrible? yes. Scandalous? yes. But there's nothing we can do about it.' "
Simitian's law banning future online impersonation piggybacks on a 19th century California law that prohibits signing documents in another person's name.
"Folks in 1872 obviously didn't face the problems we're dealing with today," Simitian said.
A handful of Internet free-speech advocates initially expressed concerns about Simitian's law. Their chief fear was that such a measure would prevent spoofs or political satire.
The final legislation holds that the person who is impersonated has to be "real" and "credible," meaning there's leeway for parody and Abe Lincoln and Santa Claus can still legally have Twitter accounts.

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