Slashdot Mirror
Teen Sues MySpace Over Sexual Assault
kaufmanmoore writes "A 14-year old is suing myspace for $30 million claiming the site failed to protect her from a 19-year old she met through the site. The suit claims that MySpace doesn't verify a user's identity or age and doesn't do enough to protect users."
Speaking of MySpace, I've been unable to find a working torrent for Thom Yorke's upcoming release entitled "The Eraser." Some torrent sites have it listed, but they've got tons of peers and no seeders, not a one.
So: Does anyone have a link where an enterprising young freeloader like myself can steal the album, without paying one red ha'penny to the artists, managers, sound engineers, graphic designers, and others who toiled long hours to produce the album and who depend on record sales to feed their families? If anyone ought to know, it's the community of copyright-disrespecting thieves here on Slashdot, right?
Remember McDonalds and the woman who sued because of the hot coffee cup in her lap?
Almost as stupid as the "mcdonalds made me fat" case.
McFacts about the McDonalds Coffee Lawsuit Everyone knows what you're talking about when you mention "the McDonald's lawsuit." Even though this case was decided in August of 1994, for many Americans it continues to represent the "problem" with our civil justice system. The business community and insurance industry have done much to perpetuate this case. They don't want us to forget it. They know it helps them convince politicians that "tort reform" and other restrictions on juries is needed. And worse, they know it poisons the minds of citizens who sit on juries. Unfortunately, not all the facts have been communicated - facts that put the case and the monetary award to the 81-year old plaintiff in a significantly different light. According to the Wall Street journal, McDonald's callousness was the issue and even jurors who thought the case was just a tempest in a coffee pot were overwhelmed by the evidence against the Corporation. The facts of the case, which caused a jury of six men and six women to find McDonald's coffee was unreasonably dangerous and had caused enough human misery and suffering that no one should be made to suffer exposure to such excessively hot coffee again, will shock and amaze you: McFact No. 1: For years, McDonald's had known they had a problem with the way they make their coffee - that their coffee was served much hotter (at least 20 degrees more so) than at other restaurants. McFact No. 2: McDonald's knew its coffee sometimes caused serious injuries - more than 700 incidents of scalding coffee burns in the past decade have been settled by the Corporation - and yet they never so much as consulted a burn expert regarding the issue. McFact No. 3: The woman involved in this infamous case suffered very serious injuries - third degree burns on her groin, thighs and buttocks that required skin grafts and a seven-day hospital stay. McFact No. 4: The woman, an 81-year old former department store clerk who had never before filed suit against anyone, said she wouldn't have brought the lawsuit against McDonald's had the Corporation not dismissed her request for compensation for medical bills. McFact No. 5: A McDonald's quality assurance manager testified in the case that the Corporation was aware of the risk of serving dangerously hot coffee and had no plans to either turn down the heat or to post warning about the possibility of severe burns, even though most customers wouldn't think it was possible. McFact No. 6: After careful deliberation, the jury found McDonald's was liable because the facts were overwhelmingly against the company. When it came to the punitive damages, the jury found that McDonald's had engaged in willful, reckless, malicious, or wanton conduct, and rendered a punitive damage award of 2.7 million dollars. (The equivalent of just two days of coffee sales, McDonalds Corporation generates revenues in excess of 1.3 million dollars daily from the sale of its coffee, selling 1 billion cups each year.) McFact No. 7: On appeal, a judge lowered the award to $480,000, a fact not widely publicized in the media. McFact No. 8: A report in Liability Week, September 29, 1997, indicated that Kathleen Gilliam, 73, suffered first degree burns when a cup of coffee spilled onto her lap. Reports also indicate that McDonald's consistently keeps its coffee at 185 degrees, still approximately 20 degrees hotter than at other restaurants. Third degree burns occur at this temperature in just two to seven seconds, requiring skin grafting, debridement and whirlpool treatments that cost tens of thousands of dollars and result in permanent disfigurement, extreme pain and disability to the victims for many months, and in some cases, years. The most important message this case has for you, the consumer, is to be aware of the potential danger posed by your early morning pick-me-up. Take extra care to make sure children do not come into contact with scalding liquid, and always look to the facts before rendering your decision about any publicized case. Courtesy of Legal News and Views, Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers
My truck is like a series of tubes.
I think MySpace should be awarded 30 million for doing a public service by slowly eradicating slutty little morons through destroying their livelihood. Kudos, Tom! You are most definitely my "Friend".
:o
im pretty sure that an 14 yo girl will have a well-estrogenized vagina. depends on how you think, you'd tell me a girl go out with somebody she meet in myspace JUST FOR A CHAT? that's funny man
I mean, isn't ANYTHING justified if it protects children from the sexual predators we all know run the internets?
Surely websites should not be allowed to let people communicate anonymously, because these people might be pedophiles! Anonymity only helps criminals and perverts!
Nothing is more important than making things safe for kids. Everyone who disagrees probably has kiddie porn on their harddrive.
Do YOU disagree? hmmm?
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
"Teen, mom sue MySpace.com for $30 million" as they titled it in http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories /local/06/20myspace.html
Wait, a teen, mum that is 14 years old? Is this an eats, shoots, and leaves punctuation here? 14 years old sues myspace, OR the mum of the 14 years old sues myspace, OR a 14 years old teen mum sues myspace?
If we believe the first paragraph of the article, "A 14-year-old Travis County girl who said she was sexually assaulted by a Buda man she met on MySpace.com sued the popular social networking site Monday for $30 million, claiming that it fails to protect minors from adult sexual predators." who knows who she should sue for beeing a 14 years old teen mum by now.
Did she perhaps meet someone (the baby father?) from Yahoo or Livejournal when she was 13?
If people are mothers at the age of 14 in a place where the age for the sexual consent is 18, maybe sue her. Or remove the child and take her to custody.
Man, you people are paranoid. WTH is wrong with a country requiring their citizens to carry an ID with them all the time? I've had mine since I was 12, and only *one* time did somebody require me to show it to them.
You're a European. In general, Europeans treat police as a bad joke. They're the "idiots who couldn't get better jobs". The "average" European thinks that police are somehow "beneath" them, that police are basically servants. You can deny this if you want, but I saw it all over Northern Europe. This is despite the fact that European police are easily the least corrupt that I've seen. I've found that the European public is generally hostile to the idea that they should defer to police, that police should be "in charge" and that if an officer tells you to do something you MUST do it. And the police just can't shoot you if you don't do what they say.
This is not the case in the United States. Here, the police are much more corrupt, are much more prone to abuse their authority (authority that European police really don't have) and most important, they see abusing people AS their job. Due to the unions and other factors, police are insulated from accountablity to the public. Example: Imagine if you will a police officer in your town got scared during a traffic stop and decided to shoot an entire family of four in their car (husband, wife, 2 kids), all completely unarmed and innocent. What would happen to him? He would almost certainly be fired and he would probably face serious criminal charges and jail time. In the United States? Absolutely nothing, MAYBE a small reprimand. And such incidents happen almost every day in the US. Consequently, Americans are justifiably wary of giving these people any MORE authority over their lives.
I haven't brought up race yet, but I'd bet money you're white. I seriously doubt the many Muslim immigrants (for example) in Europe share the same rosy view you do of the police.
Frankly, you've gotten soft and trusting. During the run up to WWII one of the great evils of the Nazis was that they required everyone to have identity papers, police could check them at any time, and if you didn't have them "in order" you could be arrested. Why was this evil in 1940 but not evil now?