US Federal Cyberstalking Law

US Federal Laws against stalking have to date been of little help to stalking victims. The Federal Government appears to have left it very much to individual States to draft their own legislation, no doubt based on the grounds that stalking was usually a local problem conducted inside a community and therefore of no concern to National Government.

With the advent of the Internet however this lack of legislation has become a problem. In many cases of stalking online the stalker and the target live in different States or even different countries, which means the crimes being committed are Federal or International in nature.

The problem is that these cyberspace crimes have not yet been clearly defined and there is a lack of Federal legislation to address it.

As regards offline stalking: in 1996 the US Federal Government passed The Interstate Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act of 1996 [ USC 18: 2261A ]. This made it a Federal crime to cross a State line with the intent to injure or harass another person. This law does little to help the Internet community of course as cyberstalking does not require the physical crossing of State lines. On the Internet this law can be found at nvc.org

USC 18: 41 - Extortion and Threats § 875 (c), is a little more useful in the case of threats made on the Internet, since it refers to "interstate communications". It states:

§ 875. Interstate communications

(c) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

On the Internet this statute can be found in full at Cornell

The US Federal Government addressed interstate telephone harassment in U.S. Code Title 47/5/II section 223. (The Communications Act). This Act makes it a Federal offense to place obscene or harassing telephone calls within the United States, the District of Columbia, or interstate or foreign commerce, including a person who:

(a) (1)
(A) makes any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent;
(B) makes a telephone call, whether or not conversation ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number;
(C) makes or causes the telephone of another repeatedly or continuously to ring, with intent to harass any person at the called number; or
(D) makes repeated telephone calls, during which conversation ensues, solely to harass any person at the called number.

USC: 47: 5: II: 223 can be found on the World Wide Web at Cornell

THE US COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT OF 1996

While the Communications Act referred only to "interstate or foreign communication (harassment) by means of telephone", the amended version proposed in 1996 (called the Telecommunications Act) changed that text to refer instead to "interstate or foreign communication (harassment) by means of a telecommunications device." This change was brought about directly by the rise of harassment on the rapidly growing Internet, and the subsequent lack of legislation to deal with it.

Title V of this bill was named Obscene Or Harassing Use Of Telecommunications Facilities Under The Communications Act Of 1934. Section. 501 of this new bill named it the Communications Decency Act of 1996, and proposed to amend the Communications Act to make illegal the use of a telecommunications device (i.e. including Internet technology) that:

makes, creates, or solicits, and initiates the transmission of, any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person

-or-

makes a telephone call or utilizes a telecommunications device, whether or not conversation or communication ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications;

-or-

makes repeated telephone calls or repeatedly initiates communication with a telecommunications device, during which conversation or communication ensues, solely to harass any person at the called number or who receives the communication.

These US Federal anti cyberstalking laws were passed in 1996. While other parts of the CDA failed to satisfy the US Supreme Court and were struck down as infringing on Free Speech, the anti cyberstalking sections were not challenged.

The CDA text and associated documents can be found at The US House of Representatives Internet Law Library


Keep it up you have been warned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

		magicman wrote:
		And i wanted to leave peacefully now i stay at skanpud expense,but when yourm a whore you have no pride ,she screwed my brains out after i tore apart here 5 times and she still wanted me after the 6th time.Till i said no more when we are arguing she puts her daugther on the phone and hears things meant for her so she is a wonderful mom drinks every nite while her kid rots in the bedroom no freinds ,dont go outside ,just a smoke filled trailer with 3 years of dog shit piled up outside!!