Expert: MySpace Suicide Charges “Problematic”
May 20th, 2008 by Dana Wollman
No one, we imagine, wants to sympathize with Lori Drew, the 49-year-old woman who, in 2006, posed as a teenage boy, courted, and then rejected, Megan Meier, after which the 13-year-old committed suicide. Nonetheless, said one activist, the charges brought forth last week—one count of conspiracy and three of accessing a computer without authorization—are nothing to celebrate.
Historically, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act has been used to prosecute hackers. This will be the first time it has been used to prosecute someone who violated a site’s Terms of Service (MySpace’s terms require users to provide truthful information, and refrain from abusing or harassing fellow members, soliciting information from anyone under 18, posting pictures of others without their consent, and promoting false information).
Drew, whose daughter had a falling out with Meier, posed as “Josh Evans,” a fictional 16-year-old (using a teenager’s photo without his consent) and told Meier the world would be a better place without her. In doing this, she violated all of these terms.
The problem, said Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is that if this case becomes a precedent, anyone who violates a site’s TOS will be vulnerable to federal prosecution under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Here’s a disturbing fact: All White House e-mail containing staffers’ personal business (or partisan politics) passes through an unencrypted ISP based in Chattanooga, Tenn. And another: Some five million White House e-mails sent between 2003 and 2005 went missing.