Internet shit talking can lead to jail?

EtaipoFetish

EtaipoFetish

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 5, 2004
Messages
395
Can the internet be used against you in the court of law?
For instance,
say you said you wanted to beat somebody up and you said it through AIM chat messenger.
Could the other person print out the conversation
and use it to get you in to trouble for threatening???
 
Yes, information from the internet can be used against you in a court of law.

I'm not sure about the situation you are describing though.
 
yes it can, although if you never actually beat him up, it's virtually impossible to proove unless there are other witnesses.

It's too easy for you to say "oh my friend was at my house and on my computer" or something of the type. Now if the guy actually did get jumped, and you get fingered, that's some fairly strong circumstantial evidence.
 
MattPD said:
Yes, information from the internet can be used against you in a court of law.

I'm not sure about the situation you are describing though.
Click to expand...

Once again, you read my mind MattPD .
 
probably the only way you could get in trouble with saying stuff online like that is if you say "I'm gonna kill u or whatever" to the person you are 'targetting' Otherwise I doubt it, maybe if you say something about a bombing or something, and the gov finds it, and responds acordingly
 
Well, the point MattPD , and I were eluding to is that it is merely stating that you "want to beat someone up" does not necessarily rise to the level of criminal activity.

Assault and Battery, usually requires more overt action upon the actor than simply expressing a desire to "want to".

Nevertheless, admissions that incriminate a poster for prior illegal activity, may be admitted as evidence against them, in a court of law.
 
The problem with using any sort of computer logs as evidence in court is that it's too easy to forge this data. In your original example I can't think of how it could be admitted as evidence unless you were already being watched by law enforcement and they were keeping logs of your online activity.

Having experience on both ends of the computer security game, I know how easy it is to forge logs and whatnot. It's scary that people take what they see on a computer for granted.
 
It is a form of harrassment.... and it is threatening. It does not have to be 'i am going to kill so and so'. Harassment is anything that makes a person feel scared or unsafe, physical or emotional.

Harassment laws vary from state to state, but the internet is a form of "harassment by communication"..... whether it be internet, phone, in person.
 
Well my fucked up cousin (whom lives in conneticut) wrote something of the like in an email to a girl at her school. Whilst I never actually saw the email (me living in australia and all) apparently she threatened that she was going to harm/kill her and I believe she was suspended from school (or possibly expelled) and forced to talk to a counsellor. I believe the police may have been involved at one stage or another but this is all secondhand information so I can't say anything with 100% certainty.
 
If it came down to it, the ISP number coming from your computer. It's almost virtually impossible to disguise it.
 
iLoveYouWithaKnife said:
If it came down to it, the ISP number coming from your computer. It's almost virtually impossible to disguise it.
Click to expand...

That only proves it was his computer, not who actually typed the message.
 
iLoveYouWithaKnife said:
If it came down to it, the ISP number coming from your computer. It's almost virtually impossible to disguise it.
Click to expand...

That's not true. All you have to do is hack another server, doctor their logs, send all the e-mail you want and it will only trace back to the server you hacked.

Not that I know anything about this or anything ;)
 
sure can, one time i was harassing this kid online pretty bad, and detectives came to my house with a printed out IM conversation that i had.
 
opiatekrzy said:
sure can, one time i was harassing this kid online pretty bad, and detectives came to my house with a printed out IM conversation that i had.
Click to expand...

If you denied writing these IMs what could they do? Not a damn thing. They could contact your ISP and all your ISP would be able to do is verify whether or not you were online at that time. That's the beauty of Instant Messanger, it's not peer to peer.
 
If you know what your doing. Don't talk to the cops, all that normal stuff. If your just some average kid, you probably will break and confess.

Cops can be pretty intimidating if they want to be. You just got to stand your ground.
 
This kid in holland got arrested for insulting the queen in a chatbox.
 
Haha, stories like that make me appreciate the United States.
 
then they have to prove you actually typed it, and not a sibling or a friend in the room, its too much variable man. its nothing man.
 
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