WUWT commenter “The Duke” writes:
I just sent the following letter to Senator Joe Simitian (D- Palo Alto) regarding Dr. Gleick’s apparent violation of SB 1411 which went into effect January 1st, 2011.
Dear Senator Simitian:
I am writing to you regarding possible violations of the impersonations law (SB 1411) you authored and successfully guided through the California legislature into law. It appears that Bay Area Scientist Dr. Peter Gleick has violated the law you wrote by impersonating a member of the Board of Directors at the Heartland Institute in Chicago in order to obtain privileged information from that private organization. Mr. Gleick has confessed to violating the law in a column on the Huffington Post. Here is a link to that column:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-h-gleick/heartland-institute-documents_b_1289669.html
As SB 1411 is a new law and, as the violation of privacy is particularly egregious in this case, I think it important that it be vigorously enforced. Enforcement would also serve to educate the public about the illegality of impersonating a fellow citizen.
I have read that this is a law that needs to be enforced by local law enforcement officials. Although I do not know where Mr. Gleick lives, I am writing to you in hopes that you might use your influence to see that the law enforcement officials in the Bay Area city in which he lives are aware of his offense and will act accordingly.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
[theduke]
More info:
http://www.senatorsimitian.com/entry/sb_1411_criminal_e_personation/
Summary
Senate Bill 1411 would make it unlawful to knowingly and without consent credibly impersonate another person through or on an Internet Web site or by other electronic means with the intent to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud another person.
Current law addressing false impersonation is outdated and was not drafted with the technologies of the 21st century in mind. SB 1411 brings us up to date by making these forms of cyber impersonation a punishable offense.
SB 1411 would add upon existing criminal penalties by providing a civil remedy, whereby anyone who suffers damage or loss as a victim of false impersonation perpetrated through the Internet or other electronic means may bring a civil action against the violator for compensatory damages and injunctive relief.
After this bill passed the Legislature, Senator Simitian sent a letter to the Governor urging his signature on this bill.
For more information, you can read the SB 1411 “Fact Sheet” prepared by a member of Senator Simitian’s staff.
California State Senate
SENATOR
S. JOSEPH SIMITIAN
ELEVENTH SENATE DISTRICT
DISTRICT OFFICE
160 Town & Country Village
Palo Alto, CA 94301
(650) 688-6384
Fax (650) 688-6370
SATELLITE OFFICE
701 Ocean Street, Room 318A
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 425-0401
Fax (831) 425-5124
STATE CAPITOL
SACRAMENTO, CA 95814
(916) 651-4011
Fax (916) 323-4529
Senator.Simitian@sen.ca.gov
WEBSITE
http://www.sen.ca.gov/simitian
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When have Democrats ever felt that laws apply to them?
Your letter was the right thing to do, but don’t hold your breath that CA will take any action until a consevative is involved.
Anton says:
February 24, 2012 at 6:28 am
Moderator, when I scroll down the left side of the page using the scroll bar, the entire page vanishes, and does not return until I’ve either hit the back button or re-entered the URL. This happens constantly, and has been going on for many days now.
Also, trying to write messages in the “Leave a Reply” field is difficult. I have to click on it many, many time, with the cursor in the lower right corner, till, finally, a blinking dash in the field’s upper left corner indicates that I can start writing. I’m using Internet Explorer 8 and MSN Explorer.
[Reply: Is anyone else having this problem? ~dbs, mod.]
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Actually, I’m having this problem with the disappearing WUWT page today, too. It occurs on the main page mainly, but also on other long threads. I use Firefox, so it’s not an Explorer problem.
Firefox 10.0.2, XP, SP3 – no evidence of any problem here. My scroll bar is on the right. I tried that, the mouse wheel and the middle click free scroll mode (or whatever it’s called that I never use)
If HI wins a case, or settles for money, would the awarded damages be considered a donation by PG to skeptics?
CharlieD says:
February 24, 2012 at 2:17 pm
[“…………………….”]
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Mr D
I think you have mixed http://www.pacificresearch.org/ For http://pacinst.org/reports/success_stories/index.htm
The website JunkScience.com reports that the Pacific Institute has received some $400kl+ in various grants (and/or contracts) from the EPA. The folks at JunkScience took an initial look (to come up with the total) of EPA’s online (presumably public) database. A very short time later they went back to get more information, but, alas, all of the information regarding Pacific Institute had disappeared !
I hope this gets reported to someone who can light a little fire under EPA !
Gofigure:
Nice alert. This means that EPA, if they are reacting to this controversy, is potentially colluding with PI and tethering themselves to the charges. Can FOIA uncover any emails to the effect that EPA is removing sunshine from an ongoing investigation? WHo made the judgment to remove PI data? When did they do it? In response to what putative stimulus? Was the stimulus to remove the documents from EPA website contemporaneous with the Gleick allegations, or, better, with his confession? This causes one to wonder…