It appears that the judge tossed out the jury's verdict against the woman who was on trial for being mean to a 13 year old girl on MySpace, ostensibly causing the girl to commit suicide.
Judge Acquits Lori Drew in Cyberbullying Case, Overrules Jury | Threat Level | Wired.com
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Originally Posted by Article
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Thursday overturned guilty verdicts against Lori Drew, and issued a directed acquittal on three misdemeanor charges.
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“I don’t see how the misdemeanor aspect would be constitutional,” he said, telling Krause that he had problems with the “vagueness” of the federal statute. “That is the issue I’m wrestling with at this time.”
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Drew was accused of participating in a cyberbullying scheme against a 13-year-old girl who later committed suicide. The case against Drew hinged on the government’s novel argument that violating MySpace’s terms of service for the purpose of harming another was the legal equivalent of computer hacking.
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Given the nature of the charges on which the woman was convicted (essentially that one can be criminally liable for violating the TOS of a website), I'd say that this bodes well for freedom going forward in the online sphere. While the woman's actions are certainly both despicable and pathetic, I think the only question is whether she could be charged with some sort of manslaughter or not. The charges that wound up being levied against her relating to MySpace's TOS are preposterous, reek of desperation for public approval, and set a horrendous precedent (i.e. if you go on eharmony.com and list yourself as "fit" instead of the "average" that you really are (or whatever) you could do jail time).
I'm glad the judge ruled the way he did and that she was not ultimately convicted of "unauthorized computer access".