OT: We Are All Now Criminals Under The Law

[Atrocities]

Oh this is not good. I thought we lived in a nation that supported and honored freedom, not twisted it about in ways to be used against people. While what this women caused this teen to do is beyond sickening, this case is setting a precedence that could affect all of us far into the future.

MySpace Suicide Case Could Make Us All Criminals

Friday , May 16, 2008

AP
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NEW YORK —
Think twice before you sign up for an online service using a fake name or e-mail address. You could be committing a federal crime.

Federal prosecutors turned to a novel interpretation of computer hacking law to indict a Missouri mother on charges connected to the suicide of a 13-year-old MySpace user.

Prosecutors alleged that by helping create a MySpace account in the name of someone who didn't exist, Lori Drew, 49, violated the News Corp.-owned site's terms of service and thus illegally accessed protected computers.

Legal experts warned Friday that such an interpretation could criminalize routine behavior on the Internet.

After all, people regularly create accounts or post information under aliases for many legitimate reasons, including parody, spam avoidance and a desire to maintain their anonymity or privacy online or that of a child.

This new interpretation also gives a business contract the force of a law: Violations of a Web site's user agreement could now lead to criminal sanction, not just civil lawsuits or ejection from a site.

"I think the danger of applying a statute in this way is that it could have unintended consequences," said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor who leads a MySpace-convened task force on Internet safety. "An application of a general statute like this might result in chilling a great deal of online speech and other freedom."

Drew, of O'Fallon, Mo., was indicted Thursday on charges of perpetrating a hoax on the popular online hangout MySpace.

Prosecutors say Drew helped create a fake MySpace account to convince Megan Meier she was chatting with a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.

Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006, allegedly after receiving a dozen or more cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Drew, who has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

Prosecutors argue that to access MySpace's servers, Drew first had to sign up for the service, which meant providing her name and date of birth and agreeing to abide by the site's terms of service.

Those terms bar false registration information, solicitation of personal information from anyone under 18 and use of any information gathered from the Web site to "harass, abuse, or harm another person."

By using a fictitious name, among other things, Drew violated MySpace's terms and thus had no authority to access the MySpace service, prosecutors charged.

"Clearly the facts surrounding this matter are awful and very upsetting, and I certainly understand the instinct of wanting justice to be served," Palfrey said. "On the other hand, this complaint is certainly unusual."

Drew's lawyer, Dean Steward, said Thursday a legal challenge to the charges is planned. Missouri authorities said they investigated Megan's death but filed no charges because no state laws appeared to apply to the case.

Andrew DeVore, a former federal prosecutor who co-founded a regional computer crime unit in New York, said Friday the interpretation raises constitutional issues related to speech and due process — in the latter case, because it doesn't allow for adequate notice of when using an alias online is criminal.

Because corporations would end up setting criminal standards, a completely legal act at one site could be illegal at another, said DeVore, who has no direct involvement in the case.

"What clearly is going on is they couldn't find a way to charge it under traditional criminal law statutes," DeVore said. "The conduct that she engaged in they correctly concluded wouldn't satisfy the statute. Clearly they were looking for some other way to bring a charge."

FOXNews.com is owned and operated by News Corporation, which also owns and operates MySpace.com.

[Jack Simth]

Well, we've all been terrorists for a while now.

See, with the way terrorist has been legally defined, you're a terrorist or a terrorist organization if you help commit a terrorist act, give stuff to, buy stuff from, or sell stuff to a terrorist or a terrorist organization.

So a legitimate terrorist buys gas at the local gas station, a member of a gas station chain. That makes the gas station, and by extension, the entire chain, a terrorist organization. By extension, everyone who buys gas from that chain becomes a terrorist or part of a terrorist organization... which means anyone all those people buy stuff from... et infinity.

[Randallw]

I am usually careful signing up for sites. Usually I use my Hotmail account so spam from them doesn't bother me. Sometimes I want to use the site but for some reason or the other I don't care to give too much info about myself. In these rare cases I might sign up as username "not interested" or "forget it". If I do get spam from them, and the likelyhood is higher since I don't particularly trust them, I'll at least know it was them.

I have no interest in community sites like webspace....myspace, whatever, and I'm not the sort to bother with aliases. I just use Randallw. It's who I am and I'm not flippant enough to use wacky usernames.

[Azselendor]

Gas Stations and Oil Companies often behave more like cartels than businesses...

[Ed Kolis]

Oh, goody, now we can do whatever we want, because if we're already criminals, what more do we have to lose?

[Mindi]

I can understand the slippery slope theory, but I really think it's because of the circumstances surrounding what this woman did to a 13 year old girl, who eventually hung herself because of it, is the only reason they are going after her. This is one area where the law needs to catch up with technology and since it hasn't yet, they had to find a law they could charge her under. If it wasn't on the computer what she did would be considered stalking, harrassment and child enticement.

[Azselendor]

Had the prosecution done their job, they would've nailed her on all of that as in most cases, the law doesn't define the medium used-- merely define the act of doing so as the crime.

[Mindi]

True, I think it was a failure of the local law enforcement. I think the fact that the parents aren't letting this rest forced people higher up to get involved and that's why it's a federal case now.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

To quote something I've seen plenty of places, "Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

[MrToxin]

Mindi said:
I can understand the slippery slope theory, but I really think it's because of the circumstances surrounding what this woman did to a 13 year old girl, who eventually hung herself because of it, is the only reason they are going after her. This is one area where the law needs to catch up with technology and since it hasn't yet, they had to find a law they could charge her under. If it wasn't on the computer what she did would be considered stalking, harrassment and child enticement.

Stalking, harassment, child enticement, yes...but, if you look at it, nobody really "causes" a suicide. Suicidal people are, in a lot of ways, ticking time bombs. If you don't defuse them, they eventually blow up.

While we're talking "everybody's a criminal," did you ever accept cash from somebody and not report it? Yup, the IRS wants to know about it anyway, even if it was a $10 bill. Ever bought something off of a friend and didn't report it? Guess what? Same thing.