Posted on 03/16/2012 9:10:02 AM PDT by Williams
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his gay roommate's love life was convicted of all counts Friday in a case that exploded into the headlines when the victim of the snooping committed suicide by throwing himself off a bridge.
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More at the link: http://news.yahoo.com/former-rutgers-student-convicted-webcam-case-155436220.html
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I think the sentence was far too long; half that would send the right message. But I can’t agree more with sending him to jail for a significant amount of time for doing what he did. People must be assured of some sense of privacy in their home. And this was an invasion of privacy in the student’s home (away from home.) Secretly video-taping and then humiliating him should be a crime with severe punishment. If the convicted did not like his roommate there are acceptable alternatives to resolving the issue.
That’s the trouble with socialism. It wants identical outcomes, so it removes equality under the law to achieve it.
The Web-cammer is being convicted of invasion of privacy? What privacy? To have your privacy invaded, you have to act as a private person, rather than a public utility.
The most abnormal and heinous crime here is not being addressed: Bringing strange perverts into a dormitory where other kids' parents have paid good money on the assumption that there is meaningful security.
Anyone curious about the environment college kids find themselves in these days ought to get a copy of Tom Wolf's I Am Charlotte Simmons
The book reports how chaste (or inactive) dorm-mates often find themselves "sex-iled" from their rooms while their room-mates carry on affairs. I seem to recall there were several such episodes. Clementi doesn't seem to have been very stable.
My understanding is that this kid used a typical computer device-- an inconspicuous, low-resolution web-cam-- he did not install an elaborate surveillance system. His action, it seems, was spur-of-the-moment response to momentary anger.
Ten years of his life have been taken by a jury--no doubt prejudiced by prior media exposure and the judge's denial of pertinent details--for embarrassing the room-mate over the use of his own bed-room.
So, the University told Ravi to use a Security system to secretly record his roommate, in his bedroom - where the expectation of privacy exists - and then post his intimate activities on the intenet?
Really? I didn’t see that anywhere at your souce. It seems to me that Ravi decided to use the webcam to invade, humiliate and hurt his roommate - to the great amount possible.
Should the rude name caller go to prison for 10 years? Is he responsible for the other adult's death? For the ensuing tsunami?
And considering that our friendly gub'mint is pushing that we Americans no longer have any expectations of privacy I see a contradiction.
If someone installed a webcam in my bedroom, and recorded intimate sessions with my wife, edited and posted the video; then sent emails to my friends, family and neighbors - I think 10 years would be about right.
If I caught him, I’d likely get about the same for what I would do.
...20 years in prison, then out before 2 years...
I think the system does this to criminals who belong to some politically correct protected category. When the crime is too heinous to merely let the criminal go with a suspended sentence, they will give her/him what may look like an appropriate sentence but then when the story is out of the public eye, the system works to let the criminal get out after a short term. It is all part of the political system’s art of manipulating the public. They spend most of the time lying to us rather than doing what they are supposed to.
The penalty depends upon the state you live in. However, taking pictures of one with their shirt off in public (where there is no expectation of privacy) is a far cry of what happened here. There is now, and always has been an expectation of privacy in your bedroom. But, to address the specifics - I would encourage you to see the laws in your particular state.
http://www.cyberbullying.us/Bullying_and_Cyberbullying_Laws.pdf
They shared a room - how much privacy could either expect/demand? He could have invited everyone over to watch them live.
PC nonsense. The article says he could be deported to India. If he has any sense, he will head that way without waiting to be deported.
Your bedroom is not a shared dorm room. Both occupants of that dorm room had a right to expect that it would not be used as a private bedroom - it was not. Students should rent a hotel room for sexual activity.
The taping should not have been shared with his friends - but he had every right to protect his space and his stuff - if that was the motivation for leaving his computer cam on. He was immature and stupid, but not malicious.
If that was his motivation, why did he dare other students to log onto a chat session and watch Clementi and the other man?
I remember some freepers calling for 20 years for Lori Drew when she bullied a teenage girl to the point of suicide. I thought that was extreme, and I think 10 years in this case is extreme, but I do think there should be serious consequences for bullying someone to death. I wonder how many freepers defending this bully also defended Lori Drew. Just curious.
3 years (followed by deportation) might be more appropriate. I’m not sure if he is actually facing the 10 years, as he was not convicted on the bias crime charge.
I’m sure the fact that one of the victims killed himself will bring a longer sentence, but I’m not sure that is fair. I think one should be punished based upon the severity of their crime, not how well or poorly their victims handled it.
Well, the mother is white and ugly - maybe that is a protected class.
There was a claim by the prosecutor that Ravi designed and laid out this system for the purpose of spying on his roommate. At the same time he put together EXACTLY the system the university recommended (and described).
His intent was to protect his stuff.
Back to the issue of pleading ignorance about computer systems while posting on FR, may I encourage you to READ the full piece of the university, and look up the specifications on that card, and also look for the university's discussion of the capabilities of their campus wide internet capabilities.
It's full service ~ pictures, voice, funny noises, text ~ whatever you want. Turn on, tune in, and drop out. Everything is there and you need neither intent nor interest.
There was, as I understand it, NO RECORDING MADE, so if you didn’t record something ............... well, it’s just unreasonable to prosecute a guy for recording when he didn’t.
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