It's not about parody, such as done by Dan Lyons, who portrayed the Fake Steve Jobs for years, but instead the practice of taking on another's persona on the Web, and fabricating e-mails, Facebook posts, or other communications with the to intent "harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud." Senate Bill 1411 makes such an act a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
A primary driver of the new law was an experience of a colleague of State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, who authored the bill.
Carl Guardino, CEO of Silicon Valley Leadership Group, approached Simitian after an e-mail went out falsely in his name, purporting an apology for something "ugly" that he didn't do.Of course, the most famous of these sorts of impersonations involves Megan Meier, 13. Lori Drew, mother of another student and a neighbor, set up a MySpace profile for a fictitious teenage boy to establish a "relationship" with Meier, then break up with her while taunting her. Meier committed suicide in 2006 afterwards. Missouri had not laws covering the issue, and although federal prosecutors tried to convict Drew of somewhat questionable charges, she eventually was acquitted.
"People who knew me knew it wasn't me. But thousands of people who don't know me received this, too," Guardino explained. "Somebody was out to harm me. I went to the police and they said, Terrible? yes. Scandalous? yes. But there's nothing we can do about it.' "
Simitian said,
"As a Silicon Valley legislator, I'm nothing but enthusiastic about technology. But the question is, is the technology used wisely and appropriately?" Simitian asked this week. "This e-personation' is one area where some constraint appeared necessary."
