pluperfecter.blogspot.com

Don't worry, trolls, the Leg' loves you.

Governor Jan Brewer signed signed House Bill 2549 yesterday, an effort to outlaw using electronic devices to harass people.

Thanks to the outrage caused over the initial version of the bill, the revised version signed by the governor allows you to continue acting like an asshole on the Internet.

The first version of the bill would have outlaw the use of electronic or digital devices to "annoy or offend" someone, which didn't sit too well with technology and free-speech advocates.

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pluperfecter.blogspot.com

Trolls (above) still are legal on the Internet, for the most part, even if Governor Jan Brewer signs House Bill 2549.

Arizona's House Bill 2549 -- which was derailed after a critic's view that it was a "bill to censor electronic speech" caught on -- has been approved by some legislators after changes were made to address those concerns.

There were a lot of misconceptions about this bill, especially from the Kremlin apologists at Russia Today, who furthered a rumor -- it wasn't even a rumor, it was just wrong -- that the bill in its original form had made it to Governor Jan Brewer's desk.

Either way, State Representative Vic Williams told New Times last month that legislators had received quite a bit of "legitimate concerns" -- and illegitimate concerns -- about the bill, and Representative Ted Vogt has stopped the bill from moving forward so everyone can figure it out.

Legislators apparently figured it out, as the bill passed easily without opposition from the Media Coalition, which led the charge against the bill, mostly for text in the original version that would outlaw the use of electronic or digital devices to "annoy or offend" someone.

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Less than four hours after Congressman Ben Quayle let New Times know he'd be introducing an amendment to address privacy concerns in the latest controversial Internet-related bill, he did -- and it passed less than an hour ago.

Quayle's amendment to address privacy concerns in the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or "CISPA" passed by a vote of 410-3,  The bill itself passed the House a few minutes ago by a healthy margin.

Quayle is one of the 112 co-sponsors of the bill that has online communities in a tizzy and is being compared to the shelved "SOPA" and "PIPA" bills, which led to outrage on the Internet, with sites shutting down for the day in protest of censorship concerns.

While SOPA was supposed to mainly target intellectual property on the Internet, CISPA allows private companies to share information with the government in the name of perceived "cyber threats" -- which led to the concerns about the broad scope of information about what people are doing online that companies could turn over to the government.

With that concern, Quayle offered his amendment today to attempt to make stricter "limitations on how the government can use the information it collects."

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endlesspicdump.com

After the bills known as "SOPA" and "PIPA" were shelved amid some mass protests from online communities, there's a new bill in Congress that has the Internet riled up -- the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or "CISPA."

The bill has been referred to numerous times as being "worse than SOPA," although that's more of an opinion than anything else.

While SOPA was supposed to mainly target intellectual property on the Internet, CISPA allows private companies to share information with the government in the name of perceived "cyber threats."

Congressmen representing all parts of the country have been quizzed on their stance of CISPA, and even the White House has released a statement on the bill, saying "the Administration strongly opposes [the bill] in its current form."

Two of the bill's 112 co-sponsors are gentlemen from Arizona, Congressmen Trent Franks and Ben Quayle.

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abackwardsstory.blogspot.com

Trolls.

Arizona's House Bill 2549 -- which was derailed after a critic's view that it was a "bill to censor electronic speech" caught on -- now has some proposed changes.

Based on the complaints from the main catalyst for the outrage on the Internet -- the Media Coalition -- the changes still might not make everyone happy.

There are a few technical changes proposed to the bill, with the most meaningful being the deletion of text outlawing the use of electronic or digital devices to "annoy or offend" someone.

"It is unlawful for any person, with intent to terrify, intimidate,  threaten, harass, annoy or offend, to use any electronic or digital device and use any obscene, lewd or profane language or suggest any lewd or lascivious act, or threaten to inflict physical harm to the person or  property of any person," the initial text of the bill read.

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abackwardsstory.blogspot.com

Trolls.

Arizona's House Bill 2549, which was labeled by one critic as a "bill to censor electronic speech," has been stopped, according to one of the bill's sponsors.

As we've already mentioned twice before, the bill was never transferred to the governor, contrary to the numerous media reports saying it has. The bill was amended before it passed the Senate, meaning it was returned to the House -- where it's apparently been stopped.

State Representative Vic Williams tells New Times that legislators have received quite a bit of "legitimate concerns" -- and illegitimate concerns -- about the bill, and Representative Ted Vogt has stopped the bill from moving forward so everyone can figure it out.

Williams says the actual intent of the bill is not to throw Internet trolls in jail -- the intent was to protect people from harassment and stalking, and defend people's privacy.

"We believed we were moving forward in good faith," Williams says.

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If your butt hurts, Anonymous would like you to let your legislators and governor know about it.

​Update: H.B. 2549 has been stopped.

Way to go, Arizona legislators, you officially pissed off the Internet.

One of the most popular Twitter accounts associated with the Anonymous community, "YourAnonNews," got wind of Arizona's House Bill 2549, which was labeled by one critic as a "bill to censor electronic speech."

The response -- repeated multiple times to the account's 562,000-plus followers -- is to fax a "butthurt report form" to Governor Jan Brewer and state legislators.

If you're at the Capitol with a "butthurt report form" in your fax machine, now you know why.

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pluperfecter.blogspot.com

"Trolling" on the interwebs could become illegal in Arizona.

​Update 2: H.B. 2549 has been stopped.

Update: Anonymous advocates are sending Jan Brewer and legislators a "butthurt report form" in response to House Bill 2549. 

It has been brought to our attention that there's a bill cruising through the Legislature that, according to some critics, could cause people like myself and this blog's commenters to be thrown in jail for generally being jackasses on the Internet.

We understand that there's probably a healthy amount of people who wouldn't be entirely opposed to the above-mentioned situation, but critics to House Bill 2549 say this legislation could have some pretty broad effects.

According to a Senate fact sheet, HB 2549 "[p]rohibits using any electronic or digital device, instead of a telephone, with the intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, annoy or offend a person."

The Senate approved this one 30 to zip last week, but more critics are coming out of the woodwork to point out some problems the bill could cause.

The Media Coalition is labeling the legislation as a "bill to censor electronic speech," saying, "...H.B. 2549 would apply to the Internet as a whole, thus criminalizing all manner of writing, cartoons, and other protected material the state finds offensive or annoying."

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Sheriff Joe Arpaio is apparently safe from the website threat.

​Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced today that the FBI's Portland, Oregon office raided a house belonging to the person they believe was running a website that glorified killing cops and "threatened to kill" the sheriff.

The suspect, 35-year-old Clifton Dawayne Brooks, wasn't arrested, but FBI Special Agent James Turgal said at a press conference this afternoon that the FBI served the search warrant on the house yesterday and seized some evidence.

Detectives from the MCSO had previously served a search warrant at the Google headquarters -- in Santa Clara, California -- last month after the website was discovered.

Among other things, the website had a photo of slain MCSO Deputy William Coleman with the words "officer down, LOL!!!" as well as a photo of Arpaio with the words "You're Next, Joe -- watch your back, bitch!" directly above it.

According to investigators, this wouldn't be Brooks' first foray into threatening outrageous things on the Internet.

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New Times

​Detectives from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office are heading to Santa Clara, California this afternoon, where they plan to serve a search warrant at Google headquarters to try and determine who's responsible for death threats made against Sheriff Joe Arpaio on a website that glorifies killing cops.

It's a pretty tasteless website -- it currently has a photo of slain MCSO Deputy William Coleman with the words "officer down, LOL!!!"

The author of the website even hails Coleman's killer, 30-year-old "U.F.O.-ologist" Drew Ryan Maras, as a "brave warrior," a "citizen martyr."

Below is how the author describes Coleman's shooting:

"2012 is getting off to a great start! Officer William Coleman, one of Pig Joe Arpaio's gestapo deputies, got his ass smoked - GOOD! Coleman, a top sheriff in Arpaio's racist AZ police regime, was supposedly answering a "burglarly call" in the early morning on Sunday January 8th 2012, in the north Phoenix community of Anthem (It must be noted that AZ sheriff's deps. have, in the past, routinely used "burglary calls" as a false pretext for conducting night-time terrorist raids on residential homes without a warrent, regardless of alleged criminal activity or lack there of). It was reported that pig Coleman took it right in the face, too."

So where does Arpaio come in? Well, accompanying the post on Coleman, the author of the website posted a photo of Arpaio with the words "You're Next, Joe -- watch your back, bitch!" directly above it.

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