Legal Research

Justice, But For The Wrong Reason?

Last Wednesday a federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Lori Drew of Missouri of three misdemeanors for her part in the suicide of teenager Megan Meier.

Back in 2006, Drew created a fake MySpace account in the name of “Josh Evans”.  She used the fictional teenager to flirt with Megan Meier, a young neighbor of Ms. Drew and her daughter Sarah.  Unfortunately Megan, who had previously experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings, killed herself after “Josh” told her that “the world would be a better place” without her in it.

Last December, prosecutors in Missouri declined to press charges:

“‘Their purpose was never to cause her emotional harassment that we can prove,’ [St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack] Banas said. ‘There’s a difference between what people think or what we may believe the reason was that they created this, it’s what we can prove and what a jury would believe.’”

The U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, Thomas P. O’Brien, then took up the case.  (He claimed jurisdiction because MySpace’s servers are located in Los Angeles County.)  Ms. Drew was indicted for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 by using a fictitious name to create a MySpace account, and by using that account to obtain info from a juvenile MySpace member (Meier) and to harass her.  After deliberating for about a day, a jury cleared Ms. Drew of felony charges, but convicted her of misdemeanors.

I’m not privy to all the testimony in this case.  And I don’t want to pile on like other bloggers.  But I think Lori Drew crossed the line.  She’s a parent.  She had to know how fragile a teen’s self-image can be.  Why does a forty-something adult need to create a fake persona in order to find out what one girl is saying about her daughter?  So maybe misdemeanor convictions are in order.

On the other hand, it’s scary how a government attorney is applying the CFAA.  By his standards, my son’s a criminal — he created a MySpace profile before he was 13 years old, thus violating their Terms of Service.  He didn’t even understand what a TOS was.  Everyone at school had a MySpace page, so he wanted one.  And am I a criminal every time I use, for example, BugMeNot?  After all, I’m using someone else’s personal credentials in order to access a Web site for which I don’t have an account.

More and more I’m thinking that this Internet thing sure is a double-edged sword.

Full post as published by Jenkins Webblits on December 01, 2008 (boomark / email).