Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges

Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges
Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus 2008-05-16

On October 16, 2006, 13-year-old Megan Meier fled from her family's computer, distraught over the cutting comments of her supposed "friends" on MySpace. Twenty minutes later, the troubled teen was dead; she had hung herself in her closet.

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-16
Anonymous (2 replies)

"The indictment alleges that Drew obtained a MySpace account under a fictitious name, used the account to garner information from a juvenile, and used that information to torment, humiliate and harass that member -- all violations of the social-networking site's terms of service."

I want to know ...

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Re: Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-19
Lori

The girl was 13 years old which makes her younger than the required 14 years to use MySpace. The parents knew she used it and allowed that to happen even though she herself was violating the Terms of Service.

It is very sad, but her parents knew she was depressed and still allowed her to use int...

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Re: Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-28
IHATEMYSPACE

you are just as bad as the bully. you probably are one too. there are many....

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-16
Anonymous (1 replies)

The thought that the prosecuters are debating crimalizing the violation of ToS (or any policy for that matter) sends shivers down my spine. They appear to be looking at this all wrong, by examining the service/media rather than the motives of the person responsible. Is it legal to verbally assault s...

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Re: Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-21
Anonymous (1 replies)

Actually I believe there are many situations in which harassment would be illegal even without driving someone to suicide. The neighbor clearly did something really dumb as well as really bad, it's unfortunate there's no better law to charge her....

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Re: Re: Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-23
Anonymous

But charge her for what?

That's the problem. Yes, she was a total jerk. She was completely out of line. IMO - she's a horrible persona and hardly worth the skin that she wears... But what she did doesn't deem charges to be brought against her. Unless her intent was to kill this child, she di...

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-17
zigmonster

This is yet another case of the man with the hammer, identifying every object within range, as a nail. I wonder if the named prosecutor is planning to run for office, soon. This smells too much like propelling name recognition in the media rather than seeking justice or enforcing the law.

Sad abo...

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-17
John W Dozier Jr, Dozier Internet Law (2 replies)

You may want to visit http://johndozierjr.typepad.com/dozierinternetlaw/2008/05/dozier-intern-1.html (the Dozier Internet Law blog on the issue). I blogged on this explaining the solid legal foundation for this prosecution based on the law as it exists in the 9th Circuit, which covers California. Fi...

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Technology and Law 2008-05-20
Anonymous (1 replies)

Perhaps you can answer this; why is this qualatitively different from harrassing a teenager by mail who later commits suicide?

If that is a crime, then this should be tried under the same law. If it's not, why is there a case at all? ...

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Re: Technology and Law 2008-05-23
Anonymous

I agree. Harrassment is harrasment. Willful emotional abuse of a child is still child abuse. I find it hard to believe that there are no better laws under which to charge the defendant....

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Re: Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-06-12
Anonymous

First of all, it seems that we don't have all the information. I have not does extensive reading on this case, but have read a number of articles. I would like to be able to see the content of the messages back and forth to see how bad the messages were to force suicide in and of themselves.

Se...

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-19
Anonymous

It's so much easier for government to control citizens when they are criminals. Solution, make all citizens criminals....

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-20
Anonymous (1 replies)

I can't believe all of these "blame the victim" comments here. This woman killed this child through a willful act and should be treated as such....

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Re: Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-21
andy (1 replies)

Thank you.

I was apalled at the level of callousness shown by most of the commenters. While I agree that the statutory basis of the prosecution is debatable, as a father who still grieves the death of a daughter, I assume the prosecuters were reacting like human beings looking for some way to pun...

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Re: Re: Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-23
Anonymous

Yes, I have ice water running in my veins. The callousness comes from the fact that this was all over a myspace account. It's not even real. Come on, what ever happened to common - freaking - sense?

I agree that it is sad what happened. But it's sad for more than one reason.

It's sad that ...

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-21
Anonymous

It is sad to see that someone as old as 49 constructed an elaborate scheme to emotionally manipulate a 13yr old - but, hold on a second? Isn't that what most marketing and advertising agencies are doing to us all the time?

Intent is a double-edged sword. This case lacks substance and will fall t...

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-05-21
Anonymous

If there is not a law that speaks directly to this, a law should be created. I vote for statutory manslaughter with a dash of pretexting. I think we all agree that this was a terrible act that occurred and that applying computer hacking laws to ToS is not the way to go. God knows I don't want the fa...

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Legal experts wary of MySpace hacking charges 2008-06-14
Seth Morris

To explain using Megan Meier's name, this article says, "SecurityFocus has a policy of not identifying the underage victims of crimes."

It is worth pointing out that there may not be a crime, and therefore no victim, underage or not. Referring to her as a victim presupposes.

There definitely ...

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MySpace = WasteofSpace 2008-06-22
Anonymous

HOLY CRAP! This woman should be at least indicted on being mental. Yeah my parents love me, but I do not believe that they would go to extremes of creating fake accounts to harass someone who did something to me... They knew I would eventually move on and forget about it, patted me on the head and ...

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