Posted on 07/23/2008 3:28:39 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian
The case against a Missouri mother accused of creating a fake MySpace page to harass a 13-year-old girl should be tossed out of court because if she is guilty as charged, then so are millions of Internet users every day, her attorney said in court documents filed today.
The papers show that Lori Drew, who was the focus of national outrage after the girl committed suicide, will seize on a weakness in the prosecution case that has been noted by several legal experts since her May indictment: While her alleged behavior may have been wrong, there is no specific legal sanction against it.
In charging Drew, prosecutors relied on their belief that she, like countless others on social networks such as MySpace, created a fake identity -- in this case, a 16-year-old boy, "Josh Evans," who flirted with and then rejected 13-year-old Megan Meier.
Because the false profile violated MySpace policy, prosecutors charged Drew with four counts based on her accessing a computer system "without authorization." In doing so, they relied on a statute commonly wielded against hackers and information thieves.
[snip]
While acknowledging that public sentiment runs against Drew's purported Web behavior, some legal experts and civil liberties groups argue that the prosecution's case means millions of people who violate the "terms of service" at the Web sites they visit could become criminally liable.
Many people gloss over or simply skip the legal documents they encounter on the Web. But in the Drew case, the essence of the prosecution is that by violating the MySpace terms of service agreement, she was accessing the MySpace system "without authorization."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"The problem with this case is it makes a criminal out of virtually everybody online," said Mark Rasch, the former head of the computer crime unit at the Department of Justice and now a privacy and security consultant. "This was a hackers' statute -- a break-in statute. When we start to apply it to other conduct, it puts other people's liberty at risk," he said.
Turns out millions of other MySpace users don’t harass others to the point of suicide. This bitch needs some serious jail time.
"if I'm guilty of adultery, then so are millions of people every day"
True, but there is (perhaps unfortunately) no law against harassing someone online, even to the point of suicide. So the only crime she is being prosecuted for is accessing MySpace in violation of its terms of service. If she is convicted and the conviction is upheld, that will be a precedent that any violation of any website's terms of service is a felony.
Have you even read Free Republic's terms of servie? Do you know if you are violating them?
I agree she should suffer for this, but I don’t know under what statute. I don’t think it should be under this one though.
I feel that mgc1122 is harassing me, can some U.S. attorney arrest him for a felony please??? I’m sure it’s against the terms of service for FreeRepublic.
This is a touchy case. On the one side, this woman should be punished for being such an immature b**ch, but I’m not sure if court is where it should occur.
I’m tempted to say we should attach her name to the sex offender registry. Maybe a psychologist can confirm whether or not she got her jollies from harassing the teenager.
what a nasty tub of guts...
An adult flirting with and then harassing a minor to the point of suicide (with pointed comments about offing yourself and the world would be a better place without you).
If it was a guy doing it, would you be so quick to cut bait?
This case also points out the double standard behind so called “hate crimes” legislation. This was a hate crime. But the media doesn’t label it as such.
That’s probably why she did it. She’s a fat ugly c#$t whose husband won’t touch her diseased crotch with a ten foot pole, so she harasses innocent teenagers to the point of suicide.
I don’t think she should go to jail by the way. I just think they should give the dead girl’s mom a baseball bat wrapped in concertina wire and lock them in a room for ten minutes. If it were my kid driven to suicide by this bunny-boiling psychobitch I would have attacked her in the courtroom
From what Ive read Ms Drew pretended to be a young boy flirting with Megan (girl who committed suicide) and that sex was discussed. If this is the case one would think this could fall under some kind of child predator law.
Background story 'My Space' hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen
If that is the case, it should fall under child predator laws, or even contributing the delinquency of a minor. There are also laws that allow prosecution for homicide if the defendant set in motion events that could predictably result in a death. Hard to prove, but if you take an already depressed, emotional teenager and then toy with their emotions and cause further depression, suicide is not an unpredictable result.
I’ve got a big list of freepers who’ve harassed me from time to time over the years. Can you have them hauled off too when they come for mgc1122?
Agreed. The women is a total POS. She had the nerve to file charges against Megan’s dad after he learned Lori Drew’s role in his daughters suicide and smashed a fooseball table the Drew’s were storing at the Meier’s house.
There was an article that the Drew’s were being harassed by the neighborhood. I had a very hard time feeling sympathetic.
You sound like you know what you’re talking about. To bad the state prosecutor Jack Banas was such a putz.
Last December, after neighbors learned of the Internet hoax, someone threw a brick through a window in the Drew home. A few weeks ago, someone made a prank call to police reporting that there had been a shooting inside the Drew's house, prompting squad cars to arrive with sirens flashing.
Someone recently obtained the password to change the Drew's outgoing cell phone recording, and replaced it with a disturbing message. Police would not detail the content.
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