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User Charged With Felony For Using Fake Name On MySpace
Slashdot ^ | 7/7/8 | ScuttleMonkey

Posted on 07/08/2008 9:36:37 AM PDT by Clint Williams

Recently a user, Lori Drew, was charged with a felony for the heinous crime of pretending to be someone else on the Internet. Using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Lori was charged for signing up for MySpace using a fake name.
"The access to MySpace was unauthorized because using a fake name violated the terms of service. The information from a "protected computer" was the profiles of other MySpace users. If this is found to be a valid interpretation of the law, it's really quite frightening. If you violate the Terms of Service of a website, you can be charged with hacking. That's an astounding concept. Does this mean that everyone who uses Bugmenot could be prosecuted? Also, this isn't a minor crime, it's a felony punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment per count. In Drew's case she was charged with three counts for accessing MySpace on three different occasions."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption
KEYWORDS: computerfraud; fraud; myspace; privacy
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1 posted on 07/08/2008 9:36:37 AM PDT by Clint Williams
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To: Clint Williams

The criminal justice system has nothing serious to do, I guess.


2 posted on 07/08/2008 9:40:07 AM PDT by purpleraine
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To: Jim Robinson

Where are the Terms of Service for FR posted?


3 posted on 07/08/2008 9:40:24 AM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: Clint Williams
Like everybody doesn't do this.

She must have been using it to trick somebody, ala Megan Meier, and they have to act like they're actively doing something to stop it.

It's fun to be a sacrificial lamb.

4 posted on 07/08/2008 9:41:43 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Public policy should never become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. -- Ike Eisenhower)
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To: purpleraine
The criminal justice system has nothing serious to do, I guess.

Other than to turn lots of folk into criminals? There's a quote there, something about control, but I don't remember it.

5 posted on 07/08/2008 9:41:58 AM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: Clint Williams

Stop the beating! I confess!

My real name is Glenn.

Glenn is just an alias on here.


6 posted on 07/08/2008 9:42:39 AM PDT by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
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To: Clint Williams

I better ‘fess up to all of you right now. Joe 6-pack is’nt my real name.


7 posted on 07/08/2008 9:42:46 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Clint Williams

Hmmmm......maybe I outta stop registering with the online name of “Nunya_Business”.

BTW, does anybody ever really read those user agreements anyway?


8 posted on 07/08/2008 9:42:46 AM PDT by diverteach (http://foolishpleasurestudio.com/eyewool/slap_hillary.html)
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To: Clint Williams
If this spreads to include Nicknames, internet chatrooms and forums are in big trouble.

I have had someone create an account on a different forum in my name, then used that false account to attack me.

9 posted on 07/08/2008 9:43:03 AM PDT by Military family member (GO Colts!!)
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To: sionnsar

“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws”


10 posted on 07/08/2008 9:44:21 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Clint Williams

Seems like a lot of information is missing about this story.


11 posted on 07/08/2008 9:45:21 AM PDT by Always Right (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?)
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To: diverteach

I started to read one from MicroSoft once and got to the part where they said “We will control the horizontal; we will control the vertical” and gave up.


12 posted on 07/08/2008 9:45:31 AM PDT by purpleraine
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To: Clint Williams

Lori Drew is the woman who allegedly used Myspace to provoke a teenage girl to commit suicide.


13 posted on 07/08/2008 9:45:45 AM PDT by MediaMole
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To: Clint Williams

This has to do with that girl that committed suicide because a friends Mom posed as someone else. If this is applied to all websites we will be required to share our personal information with the world, to be sold for pennies, name, address, phone, etc , to access websites that may just be spam/virus sites.


14 posted on 07/08/2008 9:45:59 AM PDT by sickoflibs (We cant win elections (with illegal's votes) by out-welfaring Democrats)
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To: Always Right

The connection with Megan Meier’s suicide is entirely missing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Meier


15 posted on 07/08/2008 9:47:07 AM PDT by MediaMole
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To: antiRepublicrat
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws”

That's it! Thanks!!

... The problem is that there is no generally accepted definition of what unauthorized means in this context. Law makers either didn't define the term or if they did, used such sweeping language that the definition is plainly overbroad. One Kansas statue defined access as "to approach, instruct, communicate with, store data in, retrieve data from, or otherwise make use of any resources of a computer." A judge rejected that definition, saying that if it was used, then "any unauthorized physical proximity to a computer could constitute a crime" and instead used the definition of access from Webster's dictionary.

Such overarching language is also common in the terms of service used by ISPs and websites to define what is allowed to happen on their website or service. These documents are written by lawyers trying to shield their employers / clients from harm, not set up a set of usable rules of conduct. As such they are routinely ignored by both service providers and visitors. Commonly they contain clauses that no reasonable person could expect to abide by. One example is a TOS that expects users to not "violate any local, state, federal, or non-U.S. law, order, or regulation." In conjunction with the CFAA, wouldn't this make violating any law from any country a violation of US law? Another clause which is commonly found in a TOS, is to not include any content which is "threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, vulgar, obscene, profane or otherwise objectionable." This type of clause seems to be intended to prohibit being mean on the Internet. ...


16 posted on 07/08/2008 9:47:07 AM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: purpleraine
As per usual, Slashdot is leaving out the rest of the story:

"A Los Angeles federal grand jury has indicted a woman for her alleged role in a MySpace online hoax played on a 13-year-old girl who later committed suicide.

Lori Drew of St Louis, Missouri was indicted on Thursday on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorisation to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.

Each of the four counts carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.

Drew allegedly helped create a fake MySpace account to contact neighbour Megan Meier who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans."

The prosecutor is just trying to tag as much as possible on this b!tch.

17 posted on 07/08/2008 9:47:17 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Islam: Imagine a clown car.........with guns.)
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To: Glenn

My real name is ‘Tater Salad.


18 posted on 07/08/2008 9:48:47 AM PDT by Deaf Smith
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

This IS the woman who tricked Megan Mier....The /dotards left that part of the story out.


19 posted on 07/08/2008 9:48:53 AM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Islam: Imagine a clown car.........with guns.)
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To: Clint Williams
This judgment may sound ridiculous, but it was an attempt by prosecutors to nail this lady for the death of a teenager via internet bullying.

See background at link: Click here

20 posted on 07/08/2008 9:49:47 AM PDT by catbertz
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