Cruelty Beyond All Reason

I was thinking today about the "MySpace suicide". In case you have not heard about it, Federal criminal charges were brought against a Missouri woman, Lori Drew, in connection with a teenagers suicide. Allegedly, Drew created a false profile on MySpace and posed as a teen boy, to get the attention of a 13 year old neighborhood girl, Megan Meier. Drew claimed she did this to "gather intelligence," regarding what was being said at school about her own teenage daughter. Drew was allegedly so mean, cruel, and harassing, that it led to the teenage Meier committing suicide. Drew committed an unspeakably horrible act, but should it be a crime? I want to see her punished as much as anybody, but is this not a matter for Civil Court? Not any longer. The Justice Department charged Drew with the same statute used to prosecute computer hackers, prompting many legal eagles to decry that this case will result in tragic unintended consequences. Federal Prosecutors charged Drew with breaching the MySpace "terms of service" agreement, on the grounds that she accessed protected computers without authorization. Legal fine print gives me a big headache, but I sure do understand the unintended consequences of this precedent setting case. To help me explain, this is borrowed from ABC News; " It is important to understand the underlying "crime" here. The indictment does not really have anything to do with the alleged mistreatment of the girl in this case -- the alleged crime is that Drew did not follow MySpace's "terms of service." The charges are based on an anti-hacker statute, and in this indictment, the "victim" is MySpace, not the girl. " Pretty scary stuff huh? Many people like myself do not even read those elongated terms of service on the hundreds of Internet sites we visit. Now if we violate them with even a false name, we will be guilty of Federal fraud charges. I am not sorry that the Federal Government went after Drew because the result of her cruelty, had such tragic consequences. I am torn, having done many stories about our "big brother" Government stripping us of our rights. Well this is a big one, with scary implications for an individuals rights. Please do not hate me, but I think the Fed has to reverse themselves here, even if it means that Drew goes free. Otherwise, if you signed up to read this under an assumed name, you have just committed a crime. And that's just plain scary. Shades of "1984".