The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers

The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers
Mark Rasch, 2009-01-09

Last month, Lori Drew — the middle-aged Missouri mother who participated in a plan to deceive a 13-year-old girl that ultimately led to the girl's suicide — was convicted by a Los Angeles federal jury of several misdemeanor counts of unauthorized access to MySpace's computers.

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The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-10
Anonymous (3 replies)

What is the world coming to? Expecting us to abide by the agreements we make. What happened to our rights to lie, cheat, and steal? Why should we be required to be honest when we want to lie?

It's all down hill from here. Might as well get some responsibility now, they are going to try and force ...

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Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-12
Mark D. Rasch

We don't genuinely MAKE these agreements. Virtually nobody reads the entirety or appreciates the scope of ever-changing and self-serving terms of use. Clicking a single link may make us liable to the civil or criminal jurisdiction of Turkey, Congo or Bangladesh. Moreover, since when is a breach o...

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Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-14
LogicalGuru

I don't see how contracts are relevant. How can there be a valid contract if there has been no exchange of things of value?...

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Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-26
Anonymous

TOS agreements aren't with legal reprecussion for the user; rather they were never intended to be with few exceptions. What they are is a way to deny someone use of your site if they use it in a way you deem unfit... ...

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The terms of use lady... 2009-01-11
Jerror

Number one... "I always read the terms of use" that lady is a straight up liar.

Idiocracy, the judge, the jury, and even the defendant... wtf is going on... Stupid... literally stupid woman, stupid judge, and stupid jury! This whole case should have been left in the fart joke where it came fro...

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The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-11
Anonymous

Many of the terms-of-service agreements that I have seen in my internet travels are just plain stupid, and yet, internet users accept the terms. One I recently read, which had to be accepted in order to gain free limited membership, which could then be upgraded for a fee for expanded membership bene...

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The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-12
Jon (1 replies)

WAAAAaaaahhhhh, we have to follow the rules! Not fair! We are the entitlement generation! We're not subject to the same laws as everyone else! Feel sorry for us!

Get over yourself. If you don't like the rules of a website, you have 2 choices:

1. Don't go to that website.
2. Take your c...

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Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-12
Mark D. Rasch (2 replies)

OK.. here is a simple example.. a 17 year old does a google search. Guess what.. they go to jail under the Drew rationale. Google's Terms of Service expressly state, "2.3 You may not use the Services . . . if . . . you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google..."

By USING TH...

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Re: Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-13
Anonymous (1 replies)

Is using all-caps in a response rational?...

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Re: Re: Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-15
Anonymous (1 replies)

It is when you're using them for EMPHASIS. It would be bad form to have the entire post be in all-caps....

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Re: Re: Re: Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-15
Anonymous (1 replies)

You don't use all caps for emphasis, that is what a different font or italics is for. Anyhow, enough about posting etiquette. People should know this already....

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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-16
Anonymous

Except that it isn't always obvious how to change fonts or italics on a web form, and some people are in too big of a hurry to bother. An alternative to all-caps is to enclose the emphasized word in asterisks.

At any rate, people *don't* always know about etiquette -- that's how this whole discu...

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Re: Re: The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-04-17
Well what about contract law

But don't you have to use Google (i.e. send an HTTP request and get a response) to see their TOS? Isn't there a question of fact authorization has been provided? If you are using a standard protocol (HTTP) in a standard way (i.e. not CMD.exe?../../../) and are not required to click an "I agree" li...

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Legal pieces 2009-01-12
Anonymous (1 replies)

SF, if you insist on posting one legal piece after another at least try to give another countries legal system a look to. The whole world does not evolve around the US. ...

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Re: Legal pieces - Other Countries 2009-01-13
Mark D. Rasch (1 replies)

The principle of "exceeding authorized access" exists in the UK Compuer Misuse Act, as well as the Austrailian equivalent, and is part of the EU Cybercrime treaty. Thus, this precedent could potentially be applied under a trespass theory in most countries that have adopted "uniform" computer crime ...

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Re: Re: Legal pieces - Other Countries 2009-01-14
Anonymous (1 replies)

Fair enough. That said, if SF wants to continue having legal pieces as a mainstay here then they should also start publishing pieces from other legal parts ie: Europe, Asia and so on. Better yet, don't insist on having them monthly. This is after all a security centric forum. That is not a personal ...

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Re: Re: Re: Legal pieces - Other Countries 2009-01-20
Anonymous

Computer privacy law is part of information security. Personally, if I had to choose between this column and an expose on the latest theoretical attacks on MD5, I'd choose this. Because this is more relevant to the real world than the possibility that in 4 months Russian hackers will be able to spoo...

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The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-12
Anonymous

The other thing not listed here was the fact the online persona Drew was using was not created by Drew, but by her accomplice. In addition, several of the emails that may have helped send this little girl over the edge were also sent by this other person. A person who was given immunity to testify a...

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The Drew Verdict Makes Us All Hackers 2009-01-19
TerryH

Yo,

I understand the authors concern over potential criminalization of everyday computer activities, but the example he used (Google search) is invalid. The main Google search page has no statement regarding minimum age to do a search, and there is not a link to TOS only privacy policy. Therefo...

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