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.