An update on the UMN affair

Posted May 3, 2021 19:37 UTC (Mon) by ttuttle (subscriber, #51118)
In reply to: An update on the UMN affair by error27
Parent article: An update on the UMN affair

I'd expect you'd have to prove they were trying to impersonate that someone, rather than just submitting under a pen name or pseudonym or such.

An update on the UMN affair

Posted May 4, 2021 3:32 UTC (Tue) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link] (3 responses)

There are a bunch of different potential legal issues around using a pen name. Also identity theft would probably be several additional crimes as well as fraud.

An update on the UMN affair

Posted May 4, 2021 3:38 UTC (Tue) by ttuttle (subscriber, #51118) [Link] (2 responses)

So, putting aside identity theft, since we both agree that's definitely gonna land you in all manner of legal hot water: what makes this fraud but not someone simply using a pen name? Or are you saying that pen names are inherently fraudulent?

An update on the UMN affair

Posted May 4, 2021 4:46 UTC (Tue) by error27 (subscriber, #8346) [Link]

In MN if you're getting paid under the fake name then you have to fill out a Certificate of Assumed Name form with your county.

But in this case it seems like they were using a fake name in order to deceive. I'm not a lawyer but I think you could be sued for that.

The other thing is we have told everyone that they are supposed to use their real name as they would for signing a legal document. In the past I have had to search for every contributed to the Sparse static checker so we could relicense it. If people use a fake name, how could you find their Facebook page and their new employer?

An update on the UMN affair

Posted May 4, 2021 15:20 UTC (Tue) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

In order to be fruadulent there must be intent to deceive. So there's nothing inherently wrong with pen names. After all, I'm well known under my nic on the net, though I don't make it hard for people to find my real name. For anything on the net where real names are important (like as someone mentioned, getting paid :-), I'd just refer to myself by my real name with "(aka Wol)" at the end of it.

Cheers,
Wol