Re:Court: Violating a site’s terms of service isn’t criminal...
by throwaway17_17 on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @03:03PM
(#22741181)
This is the commonly excepted folk advice people are given, however, most state laws (US) take no account of so called posted signs. There is a ‘mens rea’ requirement that for trespassing would typically require only that the trespasser knew they were on land that did not belong to them (this issue is easier to muddy if the trespassing occurs on ‘public’ lands/property).
But the statutory basis for trespassing is most often just the act of crossing into land without prior express permission.
Re:Court: Violating a site’s terms of service isn’t criminal...
by iamatworknow on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @03:20PM
(#22741372)
I wanted to make sure I wasn't talking out of my ass about the posted signs, so I looked up the regulations for where I was from (New York): https://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/2442.html#posted
But to be clear about my anecdote, I wasn't doing anything wrong and wasn't actually arrested. My family's property bordered the property I "trespassed" on, and the guy called the cops on me, a 10 year old, instead of just telling me to leave. The cop showed up and basically just scared me and said he didn't want to come back out there.
At least that's what the cops told me one time when I was a kid and got busted exploring in the woods and missed the property owner's "POSTED" signs...