Mark’s Soap Box

This is the most idiotic bullcrap I have ever seen. The US Attorneys in charge of this case should be fired and stripped of their license to practice law. Instead of enforcing the law, they are trying to make some bad parents feel better about the death of their daughter. Disgusting.

“Not Guilty” Plea in Federal MySpace Suicide Case

The idiots at the Justice Department just don’t get it. Quite frankly this scares me, that they would push the law this far.

Drew, of suburban St. Louis, Mo., is accused of helping to create a MySpace account that appeared to belong to a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. The boy did not exist.

So what did they charge her with? “Hacking”. No, really.

Rebecca Lonergan, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Southern California, has said use of statute, known as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, may be open to challenge.

Lonergan said the crimes covered by the law involve obtaining information from a computer, not sending messages out to harass someone.

The law they charged her with was designed to fight hackers using accounts that did not belong to them.

Experts have said the case could break new ground in Internet law. The statute used to indict Drew usually applies to Internet hackers who illegally access accounts to get information.

Did she do that? No.

“Here it is the flow of information away from the computer,” she said. “It’s a very creative, aggressive use of the statute. But they may have a legally tough time meeting the elements.”

What did she do?

Drew’s daughter had been a friend of 13-year-old neighbor Megan Meier and the fake account was used to send cruel messages to the girl, including one stating the world would be better off without her. Megan hanged herself in 2006.

Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Meier.

Even if she did create the account, it’s her account; so she is not violating the law she is charged with.

Worse, if she is convicted it means that anyone who does not use their real name online is violating the law. Yea, think about that. If you have ever created an account under a ‘nom de guerre’ you are now a criminal in the eyes of your government.

I am wondering if the Feds are going to do the same to the vigilantes who posted personal information about Mrs Drew? Of course not. They are not about enforcing the law. They only want to make people feel better.

Tags: myspace, lori drew, megan meier