Posts tagged jail

• More than two-thirds would upload copyrighted material to the internet
• More than half couldn’t identify a defamatory statement
• A third were unaware that organising looting via Facebook or Twitter was illegal

Tweeting and posting messages on Facebook are part of many people’s daily routine – but more than half of users risk possibly lengthy jail sentences by not understanding how the law affects them when they’re online.

A study by online advice site knowthenet.org.uk found that a worrying number of young people had no idea that while they’re online, they could be breaking copyright and privacy laws, making defamatory remarks or even inciting riots.

The survey comes after two people were jailed for four years each for attempting to incite a riot on Facebook this summer.

Stark reminder: Composite Image of Jordan Blackshaw, 20, (left) and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, were both sentenced to four years behind bars for trying to incite a riot via a Facebook message

Jordan Blackshaw and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, from Cheshire, received the hefty terms despite the riot not taking place.

It’s was a stark warning, yet a third of people did not realise that posting a message to organise vandalism and looting was illegal.

When discussing the incitement of violence during the London riots, one participant said: ‘My friend was on Twitter and made some joke about looting. Loads of people attacked him online and then the police found him and they shut down his BBM [Blackberry messenger] and Twitter - but he was just joking, he didn’t know how serious it would be!’

The survey, which questioned 2,000 young people aged 14 to 21, also found that 67 per cent would be happy to upload content to the internet, such as photos and song lyrics, that was in fact protected by copyright laws.

After learning that in many cases it’s illegal to upload a video of a concert onto YouTube, another participant said: ‘I always film concerts and put it on YouTube, but I never even thought it could be a problem!’

Earlier this year, meanwhile, there was a storm on Twitter when messages appeared that flouted a ‘super injunction’ footballer Ryan Giggs had taken out preventing his identification over an affair he had with Imogen Thomas.

Still, almost two-thirds said they would discuss or publish details of a super injunction.

Defamation was also identified as a risk area with only 42 per cent able to correctly identify a defamatory statement.

Phil Kingsland, site director at knowthenet.org.uk, said: ‘The results of the study show a worrying lack of understanding of how the law applies online, particularly amongst younger age groups.

‘In the past year we’ve seen many cases of people being convicted for offences committed online and, whilst there are those who set out to deliberately break the law and get punished, , there are many others who could find themselves in trouble without realising they were doing anything wrong.’

Jonathan Armstrong, legal expert for the site, added: ‘There seems to be a sense that different rules apply when, in fact, most laws apply on the internet and there are also a range of new laws that specifically address online activities.

‘When you combine that with the fact that virtually all online activity leaves an electronic footprint for prosecutors to follow, you end up with a situation where large swathes of the population are at risk.’

A judge has declared French former president Jacques Chirac guilty of misusing public funds, in a political graft trial that made history by producing the first conviction of a head of state since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain in 1945.

In the absence of the 79-year-old, who ruled from 1995 until 2007, the judge declared Chirac guilty and handed down a suspended two-year jail sentence.

Chirac was tried on charges of diverting public money into phantom jobs for political cronies while he was mayor of Paris between 1977 and 1995, a time when he built a new centre-right Gaullist party that launched his successful presidential bid.

In their ruling, judges said Chirac’s behaviour had cost Paris taxpayers the equivalent of 1.4 million euros ($1.8 million).

“Jacques Chirac breached the duty of trust that weighs on public officials charged with caring for public funds or property, in contempt of the general interest of Parisians,” the ruling said.

In theory, Chirac, excused from much of the proceedings on the grounds of failing memory, could have been sent to jail for 10 years, the maximum sentence for the charges against him.

He is the first president of modern France to be tried, but Petain was convicted of treason and the country’s last king, Louis XVI, was sent to the guillotine in 1793.

The verdict marked the end of a long legal drama. France’s current foreign minister, Alain Juppe, was convicted in the same case in 2004 but has since returned to public life, and is a key ally of president Nicolas Sarkozy.

For many the sentence was a surprise. Even state prosecutors had called for Chirac - who still polls as one of France’s most popular figures - to be cleared, and France has largely forgiven his long history of corruption.

‘Justice has spoken’

Chirac denied all the charges, but the case is only one of many corruption scandals to have dogged him in a long public career.

“I hope this judgement won’t change the profound affection that the French people still rightly have for Jacques Chirac,” defence counsel Georges Kiejman said, adding that Chirac would decide later in the day whether to appeal.

Chirac’s 54-year-old Vietnamese-born adopted daughter Anh Dao Traxel, said the ruling had been “too, too harsh”.

“Justice has spoken, it must be respected but it’s unfortunately a great pain for our family and for Jacques Chirac,” she told reporters.

A spokesman for the opposition Socialist Party, Benoit Hamon, said the verdict was late but “a good sign for French democracy”.

Doctors say Chirac has “severe and irreversible” neurological problems including memory loss and dementia.

While he still makes occasional public appearances as a respected centre-right elder statesman, he was unable to attend the trial.

He was tried alongside nine alleged accomplices. Two were cleared, but the rest were convicted of helping Chirac run the fraud.

AFP/Reuters

(Source: abc.net.au)