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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."
The accused should be getting a medal not a trial.
How we know is more important than what we know.
This is so eff'd in the A I don't even know where to start. If someone harasses you IRL, who do you blame? The... air that carried their words to your ears? Far be it from me to seem like a d-bag in the face of a teenage suicide, but blaming someone else for it is completely and utterly retarded.
It's high-damn-time we look parents straight in their pie-stuffed me-first faces and say "Take some goddamn responsibility." If your child -- YOUR CHILD -- was depressed enough to commit suicide, how could you not know?
Oh, that's right, you were too busy watching Dancing With the Stars and reruns of Monk to pay attention. GG, parents, the blood is on your hands.
Sony ha
Its the god damn internet.
The fact that it was done entirely through text communications, this girl never actually met her eboyfriend, but was so distraught by him turning on her that she /wrists? I have sympathy over her being dead, but not the reason for it happening.
If the law isn't equipped to handle this - and judging by the lack of ability on its part to figure out just what to charge this person, I'm inclined to believe it isn't - sometimes you just have to take (lawful) measures to make sure she doesn't get to destroy a life and walk away from it.
It's not harassment; it's simply notifying employers that someone they may be hiring is a bad hire. Harassment would be sending her letter after letter, and that I wouldn't condone.