3 replies to this topic

[zerpotod@yahoo.com]

Students to face cyberbullying charges
A California appeals court has ruled that several Los Angeles high school students who made derogatory and threatening comments on a fellow student's Web site can be charged with hate crimes and defamation.

According to court documents (pdf), a 15-year-old Harvard-Westlake High School Student created a Web site in 2005 to promote his singing and acting career. When fellow students discovered the site, they were reportedly "offended and put off by its ‘I am better than you’ attitude and its blatant bragging and self promotion."

read more here
http://scitech.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/22/st...llying-charges/

[zerpotod@yahoo.com]

The appellate court determined that the cyberbullying was not free speech and the students were not protected by First Amendment rights.

hmm
Mike Masnick of Techdirt disagrees with the suit:
http://techdirt.com/...503118631.shtml

[FreakinWeasel]

Mike Masnick is a meathead. These were specific threats to a recognized minority group and individual. It was a hate crime no matter how you slice it. Yes, the case has implications beyond the immediate scope but it is necessary in order to test the boundaries of the new laws. Without review, laws never get better. Not that w have a good history of rewriting shitty laws: http://www.dumblaws....ates/california. Case in point...

[Mazer]

I've never thought that the motivation behind a crime should be considered when sentencing a criminal, only the criminal act and the results of that act should matter. How is a racially motivated crime any worse than the same crime committed without regard to race?

None the less, the bullies deserve to be punished for making specific threats of harm.