ANYTHING YOU BLOG CAN BE USED AGAINST YOU IN A COURT OF LAW – INCLUDING THOSE LITTLE GOTH EMOTICONS

[defrog]

ITEM: A jury dismisses weapons charges against Gary Waters – an ex-con on parole for burglary and arrested again for carrying a loaded gun and resisting arrest – after his defense lawyer successfully discredits the arresting officer (right) by showing the jury his MySpace page.

New York police officer (and amateur body builder) Vaughan Ettienne arrested Waters in 2006, breaking his ribs in the process. Waters claimed the gun was planted, and his lawyer provided proof that Ettienne was crooked with the following evidence:

• The day before the arrest, Ettienne had set his "mood indicator" on his MySpace page to "devious".
• In the lead-up to the trial, Ettienne had set his status on his Facebook page to: "Vaughan is watching 'Training Day' to brush up on proper police procedure.''

Waters was acquitted on the weapons charge and found guilty of resisting arrest.

Result!

This worries me, of course. I can’t say what Ettienne is like as a cop – some of the other anecdotes in the story are not flattering – but he makes a good point here:

"You have your internet persona, and you have what you actually do on the street ... what you say on the internet is all bravado talk, like what you say in a locker room.”

This is true. Humans are multi-faceted creatures when it comes to live social interaction. We act differently around our close friends than we do around our parents or our office colleagues. We do it when we put our thoughts and ideas into media form as well. That’s how fiction gets written, for example. Warren Ellis may write at length about Godzilla bukkake porn, but it doesn’t mean he actually wants to see any of it.

Blogs are another form of this. For many of you, yr LJ blog is very much a WYSIWYG affair. For others, it’s a more selective presentation. Some of us (like me) have to keep separate personalities online because the audience that reads my work-related stuff may be put off by the fact that I also run a blog that includes posts about, say, blowjob products, Rita Hayworth, or sexy Betty Rubble art. It also helps me to blog about job-related things without worrying about whether I’ve just inadvertently given away our business strategy for the year.

The thing is, many people don’t look at blogs that way. The old rule of thumb for libel and slander (in the US, anyway) is that if it’s written down and anyone else sees it, you are legally responsible for it. We already know that includes email.

Apparently, that now includes emoticons.

Which is a troubling precedent. But then I’ve used the “devious” emoticon plenty of times, so I would say that, wouldn’t I?

An emotional man,

This is dF

Comments

[dinopollard.livejournal.com]

...I don't think my coworkers would have a problem if I wrote anything like you do.

But I also live in Japan which is pretty fucked up. And I love it.

[ziyda.livejournal.com]

This post of yours is ... a deeply important one.
*cough* I'm not saying the others haven't been.
Oh, you know what I mean.
~ : /
Smiles will get me in trouble. Yikes.

[jasonfranks.livejournal.com]

I have two blogs as well.

I don't make a secret of it, but I keep my blogging about work and industry-related stuff away from my livejournal, where I talk about comics, books, music and WHAT PISSES ME OFF TODAY.

I don't think there are many, or any common readers across the blogs. Most people who read my LJ are people that I know personally or at least have had some kind of working relationship with through comics and such.

I do watch what I say in public because... well, I'm in IT. My colleagues know how to use google.

-- JF