Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tenn.

Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee

Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee | Techdirt

Bill itself:
http://state.tn.us/sos/acts/107/pub/pc0362.pdf

New law would read:

(a) A person commits an offense who intentionally:

(4) Communicates with another person or transmits or displays an image in a manner in which there is a reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim by [by telephone, in writing or by electronic communication] without legitimate purpose:

(A) (i) With the malicious intent to frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress; or

(ii) In a manner the defendant knows, or reasonably should know, would frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress to a similarly situated person of reasonable sensibilities; and

(B) As the result of the communication, the person is frightened, intimidated or emotionally distressed.

Click to expand...

Post picture to facebook. It causes someone emotional distress. You are now a criminal in Tennessee.

What a horridly vague and abusable law. Somebody must have goatse'd the governor...

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

Deuce said:

Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee

Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee | Techdirt

Bill itself:
http://state.tn.us/sos/acts/107/pub/pc0362.pdf

New law would read:


Post picture to facebook. It causes someone emotional distress. You are now a criminal in Tennessee.

What a horridly vague and abusable law. Somebody must have goatse'd the governor...

Click to expand...

only if there is a 'reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim'.

So, if you post a picture on Facebook, and I claim emotional distress, my claim is only valid if you had reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by me.

THis reaches, but I don't see a huge problem here.

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

Whovian said:

only if there is a 'reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim'.

So, if you post a picture on Facebook, and I claim emotional distress, my claim is only valid if you had reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by me.

THis reaches, but I don't see a huge problem here.

Click to expand...

So If I find out someone is deathly afraid of clowns I would be breaking the law by posting this pic on their facebook page??



btw the above pic is from "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" - a movie that is so horrendously awful that it transforms into fantastically awesome.

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

Whovian said:

only if there is a 'reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim'.

So, if you post a picture on Facebook, and I claim emotional distress, my claim is only valid if you had reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by me.

THis reaches, but I don't see a huge problem here.

Click to expand...

The 1st Amendment be damned?

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

I've always been bothered by legislators that think that they need to pass legislation. Eventually, they run out of sensible new laws. Tennessee has hit the bottom of the barrel.

At the rate that we're going, we will have a majority of Americans locked up before long.

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

This seems like a first amendment issue to me.

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

Deuce said:

Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee

Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Tennessee | Techdirt

Bill itself:
http://state.tn.us/sos/acts/107/pub/pc0362.pdf

New law would read:


Post picture to facebook. It causes someone emotional distress. You are now a criminal in Tennessee.

What a horridly vague and abusable law. Somebody must have goatse'd the governor...

Click to expand...

So - you can harass someone with a picture.

But someone can't be found guilty of unlawful posession if they take your photograph and use it for other purposes such as advertising?

Someone divided by "0" here. . . and damnit - look what the **** happened!

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

Whovian said:

only if there is a 'reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by the victim'.

So, if you post a picture on Facebook, and I claim emotional distress, my claim is only valid if you had reasonable expectation that the image will be viewed by me.

THis reaches, but I don't see a huge problem here.

Click to expand...

Doesn't FACEBOOK have facial recognition software? I seem to remember that it would try and alert you (with the idea of helping people network) so the idea of reasonable expectation must have a technological dimension.

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

Infinite Chaos said:

Doesn't FACEBOOK have facial recognition software? I seem to remember that it would try and alert you (with the idea of helping people network) so the idea of reasonable expectation must have a technological dimension.

Click to expand...

And what about that back-face app, eh?

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

This strikes me as a perfectly reasonable law. Free speech is not a blanket justification for flouting the sensibilities of the community.

Re: Post A Picture That 'Causes Emotional Distress' And You Could Face Jailtime In Te

Viktyr Korimir said:

This strikes me as a perfectly reasonable law. Free speech is not a blanket justification for flouting the sensibilities of the community.

Click to expand...

Define "emotional distress" and "reasonable expectation" when it comes to publicly available information. A youtube video could "reasonably" be expected to be viewed by anyone on the planet, right?

Does Goetse cause "emotional distress?" I thought it was gross. Is that distress? How do I prove whether I was distressed? What about posting a picture of a burning flag? A burning bible? Quran? Burning PERSON?

Pictures of starving children are really, really sad.

Do I really have to account for the "sensibilities" of every single person on my Facebook friends list? One of my friends works for an oil company. He might be "emotional distressed" if I make comments about climate change, right?