Charges against Lori Drew, the mother who drove Missouri teenager Megan Meier to suicide on MySpace in 2007 have been dismissed.

Drew was found guilty of three counts of accessing a computer without authorization in November 2008 over tricking Meier, a rival of her daughter, into a fake relationship with a fictitious boy on MySpace. Drew broke the relationship off and mocked Meier, an action that drove the teen to end her life.

In dismissing the charges, U.S. District Judge George H. Wu said that he was concerned that if Drew was found guilty of violating the terms of service in using MySpace, anyone who violated the terms could be convicted of a crime.

The result is a blow to prosecutors who were desperate to charge Drew with anything following the public outrage the story generated. For the rest of us though, the decision is a good one. Turning a Terms of Service breach into a Federal Crime could have opened a pandora’s box of prosecutions for even trivial matters (potentially using a presumed identity could have become a crime), a view held by a range of groups on both sides of the political fence including the EFF and Heritage Foundation.

Related posts:

1. MySpace Suicide verdict: Lori Drew guilty of lesser charges
2. Say goodbye to anonymity on the web
3. Dena Riley Pleads Guilty in Videotaped Sex Killing Case

A Federal Jury in Los Angeles hearing the MySpace suicide case has found Lori Drew guilty of three minor offenses.

The MySpace Suicide made headlines last year after it was disclosed that a Missouri teenager Megan Meier hanged herself after being tricked into a fake relationship with a fictitious boy on MySpace. Lori Drew, the mother of a school rival of Megan Meier was posing as the boy.

The result wasn’t all good news: the jury could not reach a verdict on a conspiracy count, and U.S. District Court Judge George Wu declared a mistrial on the charge reports AP. It’s not clear at this stage whether a new trial will be held to rehear those charge. If later found guilty of conspiracy, Drew could face 20 years in jail.

Instead the jury found Lori Drew guilty of three counts of accessing a computer without authorization, with a maximum 3 year sentence possible and up to a $300,000 fine. Sentencing has not yet been decided.

Obviously its unfortunate they didn’t get all four to stick, but at least some justice has been had.

(img credit: The Age)

Related posts:

1. Lori Drew case dismissed, and why it’s a good thing
2. Say goodbye to anonymity on the web
3. Phil Spector Guilty of Murdering Lana Clarkson

Back at the beginning of the year a young girl by the name of Megan Meier committed suicide after being turned on by a young man with whom she had become close to on MySpace. It turns out though that the young man never existed but was in fact a fake persona created on MySpace by Lori Drew. Now the interesting thing is that this woman wasn’t alone in the perpetration of the hoax. In fact many of Megan’s neighbours; along with Drew, were in on this terrible hoax that ended in the death of a fine young lady.

No one; least wise myself, is saying what was done is right but as is human nature there is a rising crescendo of voices calling for blood with the most attention being directed at Lori Drew. The only problem was that there was nothing that state law enforcement could charge her with as she really hadn’t broken any crime. At that point the federal government stepped in and said they would charge her.

So what did they charge with?

How about “conspiracy and fraudulently gaining access to someone else’s computer”.

Yup .. that’s it and as much of a twist of the laws as it might be this is exactly what they got indictments against Ms. Drew which has more than a few legal scholars a little worried. the one thing that was in Lori Drew’s favour though was that the judge hearing the case had originally said that any evidence relating to Megan Meier’s suicide would be excluded from the trial. Considering that the young girl’s death had nothing to do with whether any computer fraud laws were broken this made sense.

Unfortunately though the judge has now reverse his decision and this evidence will be allowed. In light of how emotionally charged this whole matter is evidence such as this will make it very hard for a fair trial to be heard on the charge of computer fraud; as that is the only charge against Lori Drew.

So how does this affect any use of anonymous accounts or aliases?

Well consider that the only thing Lori Drew did was to set up an account on MySpace under an alias it would make anyone who has done the same thing potentially guilty of the same charge as the one facing Ms. Drew. The same could apply to all those alias account set up on Twitter, Facebook etc etc – they would all be breaking the law and subject to criminal charges.

As Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins pointed out in a post at WinExtra recently even Kevin Rose who set up a Twitter account for the cold he had could be charged with the same thing as Lori Drew. As bad as the circumstances are that surround this whole thing the fact is that Lori Drew is only guilty of is being a mean cruel bitch but that doesn’t break any laws. However if she is found guilty because of the emotions surround this case it would mean that in the future anyone who does something stupid while using an alias; or posting anonymously, could be found guilty and sent to prison.

If that doesn’t send a chill up your back I don’t know what will because this is setting a very bad precedent against something that is a natural part of using the Internet.

Related posts:

1. MySpace Suicide verdict: Lori Drew guilty of lesser charges
2. Lori Drew case dismissed, and why it’s a good thing
3. Arturo Gatti’s autopsy reveals he may have committed suicide