The Defend My 'Nets Act is a federal law in the Union of Everett, enacted following a massive ongoing of incidents of national and global unrest due to infringements of internet access and communications. The law, proposed and written mostly by President Spencer, establishes the rights of internet neutrality and protection of freedom of information, freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of speech, right to privacy, protection from unwarranted or illegal intrusion, spying, wire tapping and invasion of internet accounts, profiles or programs, protection from illegal discrimination in employment or education based on use of the internet and establishing a declaration of sovereignty of the internet from unnecessary regulation or interference with the internet by government.
The law gained heavy traction after an online petition from various rights organizations including the ACLU and multiple student rights groups and free speech coalitions demanded the President enforce stricter protections of internet use from intrusion or interference after a nearly year long outbreak of invasions of privacy and violations of Constitutional rights by government, law enforcement, education systems and employers. The law updates and re-states much of the former Internet Rights Act while updating and including varied defenses of net neutrality and freedom of expression online from a variety of recent issues.
Defined Protections[]
Issues frequently included incidents of schools spying on students' internet profiles and accounts, schools intruding, hacking into, hijacking or forcing students to give access into their online accounts or profiles, schools forcing students to delete their accounts or profiles and if refusal to do so, results in varied punishments including suspension, monetary fines and even expulsion from a school. The law states that schools of all forms, whether private or public, have no rights or authority over students' online activities outside of school grounds. This section of the law comes after an incident in various states, most notably in Minnesota, where a 12 year old girl was detained in school suspension by her school district for posting a comment on Facebook that she was upset a school hallway monitor "was mean to me". The school then illegally had law enforcement harass, interrogate and coerce the girl into giving up her log-in information and data for all of her online accounts.
Secondly, the law defends employees of any form of employment from the incidents of employers demanding access, passwords or simply breaking into and or intruding into employees' online accounts or profiles, employers spying on or snooping around employees' or prospective employees' accounts or profiles to fire or hire employees. Most recently, employers have begun demanding employees to release or give up their access and log-in information for their online accounts including private emails which are not affiliated with their place of employment.
Third, the law establishes the protection of online accounts and profiles, including social networks and email accounts are protected by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which protects online accounts as property requiring a search or seizure warrant by a court which can only be carried out by an officer of the law. The law also defends accounts and profile owners with Fifth Amendment protections, stating that even with a warrant to search or seize, the owner of the accounts do not have to give away their log-in or passwords, protected as a form of self-incrimination.
Finally, the law establishes that no government or company shall have the power or authority to unlawfully censor websites that do not directly break the law. In response to ACTA debate in the G8 Summit, the Internet Rights Act was passed to boost defense of Everetti internet users from international ACTA laws. The law protects users from warrantless search and seizure of electronic equipment at border crossings or airports in an attempt to stop copyright piracy. The law also protects users from malicious lawsuits and attacks or harassment by media conglomerates in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which restricts excessive or cruel and unusual fines and punishments, defining current FBI Piracy fines as "extremely excessive". While the Internet Rights Act decreased fines significantly, the Defend My 'Nets Act re-confirms the limits on lawsuit fines for violation of copyright and infringement, limiting a fine of $1.29 maximum per illegally pirated song, $20 per pirated motion picture and no more than $100 per pirated computer software content or video game. The law also establishes that a legal court order and warrant must be issued to seize a website for charges of piracy and due process is a secure right of all seizures. This part of the law also states that the internet is a sovereign entity, therefore certain Everetti laws are not in effect on the internet, securing freedom of speech, religion, expression, press, debate, protest and assembly and other forms of use. The law specifies government and law enforcement authority over control of child pornography, illegal piracy, as stated in previous law sections, terrorism, cyber terrorism, control and enforcement of malicious software such as viruses, trojans, spyware, ad-ware and malware, enforcement of anti-spam laws and criminal actions such as online predators, death threats, cyber bullying, hacking/intrusion of networks and internet fraud such as false websites, phishing, hijacking website programs and scam websites.
January 2015 Amendments[]
In January 2015, the Defend My 'Nets Act was amended with subsections regarding use of personal data by services and corporations and use of data by government agencies in light of the whistle-blowing controversies pertaining to U.S., British and other international spy programs and the outing of corporate use of consumers' personal data.
The fifth subsection to the Defend My 'Nets Act specifies in detail how companies and services are allowed to use consumer data and certain prohibitions and voiding of service provider terms of use agreements that consumers are forced to agree to in exchange for the ability to use a product or service. The law prohibits services or products from including within terms of service agreements or other policy agreements the right of services or companies to collect data and use such data to sell or give to third parties, and prohibits said services or companies from giving data to government agencies of any sort without a valid warrant. The law as well voids any active agreements which contain subsections that claim to allow a service or company to engage in such practices, despite whether or not a consumer signed or clicked to agree. The fifth subsection makes it a federal crime for a service or company to engage in such practices.
The sixth subsection, amended in January 2015, prohibits the federal government from accessing or using data provided from services or companies as listed in subsection five, without a warrant signed by a judge under oath. Subsection six includes the complete prohibition of government agency use of video, audio or photographic data taken from services data collection, despite having a warrant. Subsection six was included in response to the outing of evidence that certain entertainment products manufactured by companies include devices and equipment unknowing to the consumer that gives the ability for a product to monitor and spy on consumers' activities and conversations and send gathered data back to a service or company.
Subsection seven prohibits the placement of devices or programming within a product for the use of monitoring, recording, spying, or otherwise of consumer activities for any purpose outside of necessity for a device or equipment to function, such as motion censors and voice command features of a product. Section seven prohibits the use of cameras, microphones, keyloggers and or radio, wifi, or other broadcast interception devices, for the purpose of tracking, spying, monitoring, recording or otherwise mining or collecting of data or information.