I'm Going To Jail Next Time I Post A Pic!

[MA-Caver]

Tenn. law bans posting images that "cause emotional distress"

By Timothy B. Lee | Published a day ago
A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to "transmit or display an image" online that is likely to "frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress" to someone who sees it. Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to $2500 in fines.
The Tennessee legislature has been busy updating its laws for the Internet age, and not always for the better. Last week we reported on a bill that updated Tennessee's theft-of-service laws to include "subscription entertainment services" like Netflix.
The ban on distressing images, which was signed by Gov. Bill Haslam last week, is also an update to existing law. Tennessee law already made it a crime to make phone calls, send emails, or otherwise communicate directly with someone in a manner the sender "reasonably should know" would "cause emotional distress" to the recipient. If the communciation lacked a "legitimate purpose," the sender faced jail time.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ting-images-that-cause-emotional-distress.ars

So next time I post something in the "pictures that make you go hmmmm" in the After Dark section of this forum I could go to jail because SOMEBODY might be offended by it and thus I'm facing months of prison and thousands of dollars in fines.
Terrific ...

A stupid law that needs to be removed or revised. Sending pornographic images I can understand... sending a "LOL" type of photo/art that borderlines good taste I can't understand.
Fricken political correctness is ruining this country's idea of free speech. Way I see it... don't like it... don't LOOK at it. If the person is prone to posting stuff like that then ignore features like the one that we have here on MT is another avenue.
I've done it on Facebook where some people I know went on a bad Anti-Mormon jag ... posting all kinds of near-blasphemous stuff to just plain mormon bashing that offended me (though I'm not Mormon) to the point where I hit the ignore all posts from that person. Simple.
Apparently it's too complicated for Tennessee lawmakers and they gotta make a law out of it. So now I can't post what I think is a funny. unusual or links to the photo-essays which have blacked out frames with clear warnings on them because I may hurt someone's feelings.
So I got to figure out the fine line of legitimate purpose and obviously got to figure out their definition of "legitimate purpose"... so making people laugh isn't good enough... making people THINK isn't good enough purpose? Making people appreciative of the world around them isn't legitimate purpose? I dunno... Might as well quit the internet altogether... OR raise about $6,000-8,000.00 and move out of the state.
Sigh...
But if this law takes then it's a sure bet that other states will follow. Just give it time, because some super-sensitive person in another state is going to complain about a picture posted by someone living in Tennessee. S

Getting to the point that you won't be able to say "hello how are you?" in a nice friendly way because it might offend someone that you're prying into their personal life.

 

[granfire]

considering the tender feelings I stumble across from time to time, posting a picture of a sunset can get you into trouble...or a vacation shot from that carriage ride in Mexico...

 

[MA-Caver]

considering the tender feelings I stumble across from time to time, posting a picture of a sunset can get you into trouble...or a vacation shot from that carriage ride in Mexico...

Dammit! Officer... officer... arrest that person! They just offended me with that cute kitten photo!

 

[granfire]

Dammit! Officer... officer... arrest that person! They just offended me with that cute kitten photo!

OFF with your head!

<cuteness overload!>




:lol:

 

[Sukerkin]

That is indeed a terrible law! As was the law to which it is an amendment.

For all that I moan about how certain posters here 'distress' me with their consistent banging of the same sour-noted drum {Paddington Bear stare at BillC :lol:}, I wouldn't want it to be against the law for them to hold and give voice to their opinions! Just because I don't agree doesn't make me right and them wrong after all.

What a dull world that would be and, much more importantly, what a dangerous world that would be. Legally compressing freedom of expression is a major and very nasty step along the road to totalitarianism. It can start off well-intentioned enough but it's often not long before more and more restrictions are placed on what you can and cannot say or do.

Before long you can't do much of either.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

MartialTalk doesn't operate under Tennessee law.

 

[MA-Caver]

MartialTalk doesn't operate under Tennessee law.

Of that I'm sure... yet if I understand the law correctly via the article... I'd still go to jail just for posting it.

Heh... all just for being me. Wow and I always tried to stay under the friggen radar... seems that they keep lowering the angle of the sweep again and again. Lucky for me being a caver I can go underground.


(I know I know... bad pun alert)

 

[Sensei Payne]

Sounds like to me that its an enfringement on our FIRST AMENDMENT right. Plain and simple...wait a little bit and a judge will rule the law unconstitutional.

 

[MaxiMe]

Of that I'm sure... yet if I understand the law correctly via the article... I'd still go to jail just for posting it.

Heh... all just for being me. Wow and I always tried to stay under the friggen radar... seems that they keep lowering the angle of the sweep again and again. Lucky for me being a caver I can go underground.


(I know I know... bad pun alert)

But didn't their "SWAT" teams just get some Hi Def ground penetrating radar/sonar/X-ray glasses?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Tenn. isn't the US Congress (whom the 1st's limitation is targeted at).

However, it may violate the Tennessee Constitution.

§ 19. Freedom of speech and press; defamation That the printing presses shall be free to every person to examine the proceedings of the Legislature; or of any branch or officer of the government, and no law shall ever be made to restrain the right thereof. The free communication of thoughts and opinions, is one of the invaluable rights of man, and every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. But in prosecutions for the publication of papers investigating the official conduct of officers, or men in public capacity, the truth thereof may be given in evidence; and in all indictments for libel, the jury shall have a right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court, as in other criminal cases.

Court issue. No right not to be offended. There's case law on it, I just am too lazy to dig right now.

 

[MA-Caver]

Tenn. isn't the US Congress (whom the 1st's limitation is targeted at).

However, it may violate the Tennessee Constitution.


Court issue. No right not to be offended. There's case law on it, I just am too lazy to dig right now.

Yeah, just they're trying to figure out how to get around it because it's a computerized/internet type of thing and "that's different" Thing is how long before this will spread to other states?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Oh there are others, buried in dusty books. There are several thousand laws against child porn for example, detailing in exacting detail yet another way you can't have it.
Even though the main laws say "you can't make it, you can't sell it, you can't trade it, you can't give it away, you can't posses it, you can't be in it." They still feel the need to Dr. Suess it.