Slashdot Mirror
MySpace Suicide Charges Threaten Free Speech
Naturalist recommends a piece up at Ars about a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the EFF, CDT, Public Citizen, and a group of 14 law professors in the case of Lori Drew, who posed as a teenage boy to harass another teen online, eventually driving her to suicide. (We've discussed the case a few times.) "[The amicus brief argues] that violating MySpace's Terms of Service agreement shouldn't be considered criminal offense under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The groups believe that if the mother, Lori Drew, is prosecuted using CFAA charges, the case could have significant ramifications for the free speech rights of US citizens using the Internet."
I assume by "case" you mean "behavior".
What kind of behavior are you considering outlawing here? Being a dick? You want to outlaw being a dick on the internet?
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHA
Sony ha
The point isn't that the lady said bad things that drove a kid to suicide, or that the lady used the internet to do it. The lady should be subject to ordinary liability for that--just like any person who did the same thing on the street, or in the mail, or whatever. That's not the issue.
The issue is the terms of service agreement! That thing you click on and ignore so many times. That thing you send phony information so that the corporation doesn't get too personal on you!
If you type in phony information, (FRAUD, daddy), and then hurt somebody's feelings while on the account procured by fraud, the Federales can prosecute you for a crime. Think about the slippery slope this affords . . .
You gotta love the ingenuity of those federal prosecutors!
Next time I fill in a fake name or address signing up on a web site I should be charged with a felony?
Even if this adult perpetrator knew she was unstable? You must've had it rough. I didn't have any adult bullies in high school, just the stupid jock types my own age.
However, if violating the TOS is the only charge, as the summary suggests, then I reluctantly think she should be let off.
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx
What sounds like a campaign lasting a few months to build up, then knock down a teenage kid and then spreading malicious gossip about the kid sounds like enough to count for a lot of straws to me. the kid may not have been the happiest ever, but a medium term campaign like the one described is enough to get a stable person onto the prozac. You say you've been there or near enough and seen how to solve your own problems. I'm pleased for you and maybe this doesn't apply to you but problems caused by other people can easily be just as important as personal problems when it comes to someone taking their own life. I've been there too and I know that working on your own problems can only fix things if a person's environment is right - or at least not so bad that a person gets knocked down whenever they try to get up. The environment in this case included someone who was clearly malicious towards the kid, which is hardly a good one in which to fix any problems a person might have. If you're looking for a last straw, I'd go for the argument with her mum about using myspace
Don't you have any harassment or bullying laws over there that the woman could be tried under? A computer was used for these purposes, as well as impersonation - if a cape and mask were used, would there have to be a cape and mask law for the woman to be tried under?
Good luck sometimes arrives disguised as bad