Can you believe this crap? I mean, look:
Prosecutors say Drew, 49, of O’Fallon, Missouri, helped create a false-identity MySpace account and harassed Meier with cruel messages.
Meier, who was being treated for depression, hanged herself after allegedly receiving messages saying the world would be better off without her.
So, some kid becomes an hero and they want to prosecute using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act? That is absurd.
Sure, what Lori Drew did to Megan Meier–sending cruel messages–wasn’t nice. But, “not nice” in this case is in no way criminal! Otherwise, there’s crimes being committed every day in school yards, offices, customer service departments, etc., across the country. Seriously, where do we draw the line?
I’m sure it doesn’t need to be asked, but where were Megan’s parents in all of this?
I hope the trial jurors are smart enough to figure out how ridiculous this whole thing is. Case law really needs to be established here so no one else can get crucified like this.
Before you go flying into a rage in my comments section about how insensitive I am, or how I’ve got it all wrong … listen carefully: the world would be better off without you! Go hang yourself, now.
Programmer, husband, father, singer, guitarist, tinkerer, reverse engineer, strange, and living in New Jersey. 
Megan’s mother was right there and aware of what was going on throughout. Megan was under the required age to have a myspace account (she lied on the terms of service as well), her mother was aware she had it, and her mother was also aware of Megan’s budding relationship with this myspace profile (although not that the person was fake). She was also aware when Megan’s myspace fun went south, and she started feuding with her ‘friends’ on the site. They fought about it right before Megan committed suicide. This entire case is all about “Lori Drew is scum, we have to punish her for something,” and the charges were only filed after the state of Missouri declined to charge Drew with anything because they couldn’t find an actual law she had broken.
I agree, any adult woman that would deliberately set out to harrass and hurt one of her own children’s friends is sick sick sick. But the proper response would be complete ostracism, not jail on a made-up legal theory.
Celeste: Exactly. I hope her defense can explain this to jurors and we can make sure this kind of nonsense doesn’t have to happen to anyone else.
Thanks for commenting!
the world would be better off without you! Go hang yourself, now.
*complies*
But seriously. People who present fraudulent credentials are lying about who they are. This lady was lying about who she was and Abusing someone with a Computer! Ergo, Computer(ized) Fraud and Abuse! It’s simple really… We must protect our citizens from The (EEEVIL) Internets!
I have nothing useful to say. : (
this is unrelated, but i wanted to let you know there is a php/web design/blogger meetup at panera bread in fairlawn tonight (7:30). you should go!
Simon: When anonymity is outlawed, only outlaws will have anonymity. *lol*
Mike: Yeah, I’ve RSVP’ed with a “No” (because I couldn’t RSVP “Maybe”, sigh) – I’ll try to make it tonight, but it all depends on work/family activity this evening.
[ a whole lot of idiotic rambling deleted ]
effdrew: Go die in a fire. If you want to defend the idiocy of this witch-hunt, go post it to your own blog.
I must object to your statement stating that that no laws were broken by Lori Drew.
She commited obnoxious defamation by abusing the anonymity of a Myspace account. Cyber bullying per se is not a crime but libel and slander definetly are. Therefore the case is not preposterous at all.
The child’s age at the time of the incident is completly irrelevant, since it could have happened to a 14 or 15 year old teenager the same way.
I can agree with you on the CFAA though. The issue isn’t really related to the CFAA but it definetly does involve criminal behavior that is de jure punishable.