Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-a-closer-look dept.

Chris Sevier, a man who once tried to marry his laptop to make a point against same-sex marriage, has been promoting legislation that would require ISPs to block "sexual content and/or patently offensive material." The block could only be lifted if a user makes a request in writing to the ISP and pays a one-time fee of $20. An "Internet digital blocking" bill will be heard by the Rhode Island Senate on the 27th. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, two dozen similar bills have been introduced in 18 state legislatures this year.

Sevier refers to the legislation on his website and elsewhere with names such as the "Understanding the Human Trafficking And Child Exploitation Prevention Act", "Human Trafficking Prevention Act" (HTPA), "Children's Online Filtering Act", or "Elizabeth Smart Law". Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped in 2002 and raped repeatedly during a span of nine months. While she has since become an activist on behalf of legislation related to human trafficking and child sexual abuse, Smart has sent Sevier a cease-and-desist letter related to the use of her name to promote the porn blocking legislation.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation, an anti-pornography group, opposes incarnations of the legislation due to their vague language, First Amendment concerns, and Sevier's false claims that the organization supports or has authored the legislation:

The bill (sans resolution language) was developed by Chris Sevier, also known as Chris Severe. We have had a difficult relationship with Mr. Sevier over the last several years, to say the least. We have not found him trustworthy in our past dealings and therefore cannot rely on his assertions that those groups and those legislators that he claims are supporters of HTPA are actually in support. That is because, in the past, Sevier has falsely represented that our organization and NCOSE President Patrick Trueman and NCOSE Executive Director Dawn Hawkins are in support of his work. We have demanded that Sevier stop using our names.

In 2015, the office of a United States Senator alerted us to the fact that Sevier was promoting a version of the HTPA at the U. S. Capitol and was representing to U. S. Senate offices that Patrick Trueman was an author of the bill. This was false. A key legal assistant with that senator's office also said that Sevier was visiting other senate offices claiming that his boss, the senator, was supporting the legislation, which was also false.

Several organizations have contacted us over the past couple years to complain that Sevier was also using their names without authorization and some of those organizations have complained that he was threatening them with legal sanctions when they refused to support him and his work.

And for a little more about Chris Sevier's legal shenanigans, you can check out this TMZ article.

Previously: States Introduce Dubious Anti-Pornography Legislation to Ransom the Internet


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by dry on Thursday March 29 2018, @06:01AM (3 children)

    by dry (223) on Thursday March 29 2018, @06:01AM (#659855) Journal

    Freedom for the common person. You do understand that left means for the people and right means for the aristocracy, or now a days, the rich?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   0  
       Disagree=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Disagree' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 29 2018, @01:52PM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 29 2018, @01:52PM (#659957) Journal

    You're serious, aren't you?

    • (Score: 2) by dry on Thursday March 29 2018, @03:26PM (1 child)

      by dry (223) on Thursday March 29 2018, @03:26PM (#660004) Journal

      Look it up. The left-right split happened in the run up to the French revolution. Those who supported the King and church sat on the right and those who supported the people sat on the left.
      The problem is things are more complicated then a simple split, people are just as divided in the authoritarian vs libertarian direction and then there are the corrupt who don't really care about left vs right excepting whichever way will enrich themselves. Unluckily it is generally the corrupt who win as they don't give a shit about anything except power. Almost by definition a successful politician needs to be corrupt, especially in America.

      • (Score: 3, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday March 29 2018, @03:38PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday March 29 2018, @03:38PM (#660009) Journal

        So - when the bastards are robbing us, we can tell whether they are lefties or righties, by observing which hand takes our money? Ok, that makes some kinda sense, I guess.