Lori Drew will not kill the internet

MySpace ruling could lead to jail for lying online daters:

Another over-reactionary column about the Lori Drew conviction. I’m sick of them. This is not the end of anonymity on the internet. If it was I’d be the first person to sign off.

Everybody is forgetting one certain thing. Lori Drew and company violated MySpace’s TOS with the expressed intent of harassing Megan Meier no matter what the outcome of that was. Unfortunately, the outcome of their actions was Megan’s suicide.

I don’t think federal prosecutors are going to run around prosecuting everybody who uses a fake name on MySpace.

Un-wad your panties people.

Comments

8 responses to “Lori Drew will not kill the internet”

  1. Vega Avatar
    Vega

    The Drew misdemeanor convictions, which will probably be tossed out in my non-expert opinion, mean next to nothing, for Drew or legal system in general. The felonies, on the other hand, could have been used by a hammer by the over litigious. Not saying that it would have been the case, just the potential. It would have also undermined an important California ruling that ToS agreements are unconscionable and cannot be legally upheld in court because of the unbalanced amount of power the distributor has over the agreement. That would have been a real, tangible loss, and I’m glad it didn’t happen.

    Drew, on the other hand, can choke to death on a pork chop for all I care.

  2. GregS Avatar
    GregS

    The only reason prosecutors wont is because they don’t have the money to do it. Either way the terms of service thing doesn’t just influence prosecutors, it also means that AOL and others can sue you over breaking their TOS and that has nothing to do with this case but they can use this case to make their own cases.

  3. GregS Avatar
    GregS

    Trench I know you aren’t worried, but you are a website owner, so you are technically in a position to sue us over violation of your TOS. I don’t think you’ll bother doing so but you could.

    The problem is it’s not difficult to believe that there could be some evil website owners who try to take advantage and exploit this. We are going to have to pass some new laws to fix this.

  4. Vega Avatar
    Vega

    You don’t have to explicitly accept a ToS to use this website. Or any other blog out there, for that matter. This would only affect big web content. And the misdemeanor charges don’t work the same way as the felony charges would have. She got convicted of what amounts to hacking by way social engineering, and didn’t set any sort of precedent as far as I can tell.

  5. GregS Avatar
    GregS

    Vega you might end up being right, it might actually end up being tossed out. I advocate we blacklist Lori Drew and forget about using the law.

    Sometimes the law isn’t the best answer. Sometimes the best answer is the blacklisting/blackballing. Actions always have consequences, whether they are legal or not, and Lori Drew has ruined her life.

  6. Trench Reynolds Avatar

    Trench I know you aren&rsquot worried, but you are a website owner, so you are technically in a position to sue us over violation of your TOS. I don&rsquot think you&rsquoll bother doing so but you could.

    Yes, you will all be hearing from my team of ninja attack lawyers. *lol*

  7. Anon Avatar
    Anon

    To clarify the preceding statement: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Types_of_Ninja

  8. Sassy Lou Avatar
    Sassy Lou

    Anyone who thinks of “clamping down” on speech should really think of the big picture first…and if you cannot see the big picture than a trip to China is in order. the ultimate Nanny Society.

    The Harassment fine is appropriate. It represents “behavior modification”. We give fines for people who do inappropriate hurtful behavior to others. If we put people in prison for fines..we would have 90% of American society behind bars!!! What if someone didn’t like you and “made up” a case of harassment..but didn’t do it and you went to prison?

    The only person responsible in a suicide is the person committing the act. We are entering dangerous territory if we imprison someone for writing text. How we interpret the text is our own damn fault. Should we backtrack and imprison the writers of movie and novel “horror flicks” because someone decided to go out and mimic the murder?

    The Internet is not a baby sitter. You would not let your child or teenager run around in it just like you would not let them run around the streets of NYC at night.

    The internet is a tool. good and bad. More good than bad. Like any tool..you must teach young impressionable minds to understand how the tool works and respect it and take care of it..and some of these tools may have minds of their own that want to control, manipulate or take your money. Just like in THE REAL WORLD. The faster AND younger they learn this the better!!! Sheltering your kids from knowledge about bad people in the world is the WORST thing you can do. You are limiting their chances of survival of the fittest!

    Self-control the ego is another tool to be taught at a young age. Her ego was destroyed..and she was weak about herself…probably from “too much sheltering” and thus the ego, which has such a strong hold, will “eliminate itself” along with the body to protect it or win (It doesn’t care about hypocrisy)! This results in either murdering others for a idealist concept and/or suicide. (e.g. Dr. Tiller murder)

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