A08688 Summary:

BILL NOA08688A
 
SAME ASNo same as
 
SPONSORMurray (MS)
 
COSPNSRGraf, Montesano, Tenney, Conte, Duprey, Johns, Calhoun, Curran, Corwin, Saladino, McDonough, Hanna, Rabbitt, Ra, Jordan, Losquadro, Palmesano, Friend
 
MLTSPNSRCeretto, Crouch, Latimer, Thiele, Weisenberg
 
Add S79-o, Civ Rts L
 
Provides that a web site administrator shall remove any comments posted upon request unless the poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post.
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A08688 Actions:

BILL NOA08688A
 
10/27/2011referred to governmental operations
01/04/2012referred to governmental operations
07/23/2012amend (t) and recommit to governmental operations
07/23/2012print number 8688a
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A08688 Memo:

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A8688A
 
SPONSOR: Murray (MS)
  TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to enacting the Internet Protection Act to protect a person's right to know who is behind an anonymous internet posting   PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: To enact the Internet Protection Act to provide reasonable protection to individuals from anonymous Internet posters.   SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS: Section 1 contains definitions and requires a website administrator, upon request to remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster, within 48 hours, unless the anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms his or her IP address, legal name, and home address are accurate. Also, requires website administrators to have a contact number or e-mail address posted for removal requests, clearly visible in any section where comments are posted. In addition, requires personal infor- mation obtained by a web site administrator to remain confidential. Section 2 contains the effective date.   JUSTIFICATION: Bullies are notorious for harassing and/or threatening their victims face-to-face. However, modern technology now allows this behavior to occur anonymously, from just about anywhere - at any time. Using electronic communications devices, cyber bullies can post damaging comments about a person on a website, while remaining anonymous and difficult to trace. While cyber bullying is often committed by or against children, it is by no means confined to children. Anonymous postings on the internet not only can harm the persons or businesses being directly victimized, but they also hurt the public in general. When anonymous posters hide behind the interact to facilitate a crime such as harassment) or as a vehicle for defamation, innocent men, women and children are openly victimized, and the public is inten- tionally mislead. This legislation simply provides a means for the victim of an anonymous posting on a website to request that such post be removed, unless the anonymous poster is willing to attach his or her name to it.   PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New Bill   FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:; None   EFFECTIVE DATE: This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.
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A08688 Text:



 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                         8688--A
 
                               2011-2012 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                    October 27, 2011
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced  by  M. of A. MURRAY, GRAF, MONTESANO, TENNEY, CONTE, DUPREY,
          JOHNS, CALHOUN, CURRAN, CORWIN, SALADINO, McDONOUGH,  HANNA,  RABBITT,
          RA,  JORDAN,  LOSQUADRO, PALMESANO, FRIEND -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M.
          of A. CERETTO, CROUCH, LATIMER, THIELE, WEISENBERG --  read  once  and
          referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations -- recommitted to

          the  Committee  on Governmental Operations in accordance with Assembly
          Rule  3,  sec.  2  --  committee  discharged,  bill  amended,  ordered
          reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
 
        AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to enacting the Inter-
          net  Protection  Act to protect a person's right to know who is behind
          an anonymous internet posting
 
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
 
     1    Section  1.  The  civil  rights law is amended by adding a new section
     2  79-o to read as follows:
     3    § 79-o. Anonymous Internet poster; right to know. 1.  Definitions.  As
     4  used  in  this  section,  the  following  words and terms shall have the
     5  following meanings:

     6    (a) "Anonymous poster" means any individual who posts a message  on  a
     7  web  site including social networks, blogs forums, message boards or any
     8  other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of
     9  posted messages.
    10    (b) "Web site administrator"  means  any  person  or  entity  that  is
    11  responsible for maintaining a web site or managing the content or devel-
    12  opment  of information provided on a web site including social networks,
    13  blogs forums, message boards or any other discussion site  where  people
    14  can  hold conversations in the form of posted messages, accessible via a
    15  network such as the Internet or a private local area network,  and  such
    16  web  site  is  hosted  on  a  computer server or servers located in this

    17  state.
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13459-04-2

        A. 8688--A                          2
 
     1    (c) "Internet" means the  global  system  of  interconnected  computer
     2  networks that use the Internet Protocol.
     3    (d)  "Internet  Protocol  address"  or  "IP address" means a numerical
     4  label assigned to each computer or device participating  in  a  computer
     5  network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.
     6    (e)  "Victim" means the individual or owner, operator or chief officer
     7  of a business, who is the subject or target of comments posted on a  web

     8  site by an anonymous poster.
     9    2. A web site administrator upon valid request by the victim or by any
    10  individual  acting in behalf of a victim under the age of eighteen shall
    11  remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous  post-
    12  er,  within  forty-eight  hours,  unless such anonymous poster agrees to
    13  attach his or her name to the post and  confirms  that  his  or  her  IP
    14  address,  legal name, and home address are accurate. All web site admin-
    15  istrators shall have a contact number or e-mail address posted for  such
    16  removal  requests,  clearly  visible  in any sections where comments are
    17  posted.
    18    3. To determine a valid request for removal by a  victim  a  web  site

    19  administrator  must obtain and confirm the requestor's IP address, legal
    20  name, and home address are accurate; confirm that the requestor  is  the
    21  victim  of such comments; and make a good faith effort to determine that
    22  comments regarding a victim are factually based, accusatory or  slander-
    23  ous  statements  and  not  opinions.  When determining the factuality of
    24  comments, factually based statements can be true or false,  as  long  as
    25  such factually based statements are not opinion.
    26    4.  Any  personal  information  obtained  by  a web site administrator
    27  pursuant to  this  section  shall  be  confidential  and  shall  not  be
    28  disclosed  except to law enforcement authorities involved in an investi-

    29  gation of such posted comments. A web site administrator shall  exercise
    30  reasonable  care  in  preventing such unauthorized disclosure.   Willful
    31  disclosure of a record required to be kept confidential pursuant to this
    32  section to a person not authorized to receive or review such record is a
    33  class A misdemeanor.
    34    § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day  after  it  shall
    35  have become a law.
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