Tennessee Law Bans Posting Images that are "Offensive"

[Shlomo]

Sounds like Tennessee was taken over by liberals. This could lead to some dangerous censorship... though any pictures of muslim nazis offend me.
Tenn. law bans posting images that "cause emotional distress"

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 communication lacked a "legitimate purpose," the sender faced jail time.

The new legislation adds images to the list of communications that can trigger criminal liability. But for image postings, the "emotionally distressed" individual need not be the intended recipient. Anyone who sees the image is a potential victim. If a court decides you "should have known" that an image you posted would be upsetting to someone who sees it, you could face months in prison and thousands of dollars in fines.

If you think that sounds unconstitutional, you're not alone.

For the full article, visit:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/06/tenn-law-bans-posting-images-that-cause-emotional-distress.ars

[Kahane-Was-Right BT]

Wow.   Sharia is upon us.

[Dr. Dan]

So if this were true, trolls of jtf could be prosecuted.

But yes, this is a terrible law and should be appealed

[TruthSpreader]

So pictures of Muhammad portrayed as a pig are deemed "offensive"? 

[Spiraling Leopard]

This nazism.

[KansasJew]

I am personally offended by obama's pic on the net.....

[MasterWolf1]

This is also pure censorship which is a full violation of the U.S. constitution

[Rubystars]

So screamer videos on youtube can't be uploaded from Tennessee now? I was getting a little tired of seeing that Linda Blair image anyway... 

Seriously though this is terrible. The thing that bothers me about this is that it's going to be the left wing that decides what's offensive and what's not.

[Orde]

that obviously unconstitutional law won't last long, it's the sneakier laws that allow for shariah creep that are the problem

[muman613]

that obviously unconstitutional law won't last long, it's the sneakier laws that allow for shariah creep that are the problem

[Shlomo]

The thing that bothers me about this is that it's going to be the left wing that decides what's offensive and what's not.

The disgusting pig Gov. Bill Haslam is a REPUBLICAN and a phony conservative who has no care for your rights or freedoms. Remember what Chaim said about the phony right? They are much more dangerous because they can pass laws (even without any votes from the people) that the left cannot get away with.

[Rubystars]

The disgusting pig Gov. Bill Haslam is a REPUBLICAN and a phony conservative who has no care for your rights or freedoms. Remember what Chaim said about the phony right? They are much more dangerous because they can pass laws (even without any votes from the people) that the left cannot get away with.

The phony right is left wing. I think George Bush was left wing... I should be careful though in some ways because people might misunderstand me and just think I'm talking about democrats.

I think we dodged a bullet with McCain losing because he would have pushed for amnesty and gotten more progress than Obama was able to do. So on that issue at least we were better off with Obama I think because of the concept you're bringing up here. Of course Obama wants amnesty too but I think he's going to have to put off trying for it until he gets a second term. Let's hope he doesn't get one and we get at least a somewhat conservative republican in there to replace him.