MySpace Mom Set Free

The mother who was convicted of three counts of illegally accessing a protected computer is going to be set free and have the case against her dismissed. A federal judge decided that despite the jury finding the mother guilty, the case should never have been brought. Lori Drew was the woman who had set up a fake MySpace account which eventually led to the suicide of a teenager who thought she had a boyfriend who dumped her. There was no boyfriend. It was the mom, her daughter and another teenager who were pretending to be the boyfriend.

The judge was concerned, and I agree, that if her conviction stood as is then everyone who violated the terms of service of any website could be convicted of a crime.

The judge in his questioning of prosecutors had asked, "Is a misdemeanor committed by the conduct which is done every single day by millions and millions of people? If these people do read [the terms of service] and still say they're 40 when they are 45, is that a misdemeanor?"

The judge felt that because of the way Drew was charged that anyone who violated terms of services agreements could also be charged. The jury had deadlocked on the felony charge of conspiracy which I think would have not been dismissed had she been convicted of that count.

The dismissal will not be official until next week.

MySpace Suicide Case Goes To Trial

It's been awhile since I discussed the death of the girl from suicide who had been allegedly teased by the mother of her friend as well as her friends themselves. Megan Meier was 13 years old when she hung herself after she thought her boyfriend broke up with her. Of course she never knew the boy she was talking to was not real. Instead, allegedly, Lori Drew posed as the boyfriend and allegedly had other girls helping her.

Everytime I read about this case it just floors me. I hate thinking that humans are so low that they could stoop to this behavior thinking it is somehow fun or a joke to screw around with the feelings of another person that way. They allegedly knew that Meier was already suffering from depression. To do this is just beyond any kind of moral compass that most people are brought up with. I could forgive the other two teenage girls because they probably didn't know what the hell they were causing. Sure, they were being mean, but it is Lori Drew who deserves a special place in hell when her time comes.

The trial is not about manslaughter or murder, and is instead basically being tried as a hacker would be tried. It didn't stop Megan's mom from describing the suicide and how she found her daughter though hanging from her bedroom closet.

The defense is trying to say that Lori Drew barely even knew what MySpace was and that she had only a very fundamental knowledge of computers and so could not have committed the crime. If she takes the stand she will probably say something like she has an idea what e-mail and the internet are, but they are just some kind of mystery technology or something.

Good luck with that defense. Drew could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted of all the charges. Unfortunately she probably will just get probation even if convicted. Not much justice in that.