MySpace Cyberbullying Conviction Reversed, for Now

On Thursday, a federal judge threw out the conviction of Lori Drew for her part in a MySpace ruse that ended with a 13-year-old girl committing suicide. Drew was convicted in November, but appealed her case.

The indictment alleged that Drew, along with others, registered as a member of MySpace under the name Josh Evans. Drew and her co-conspirators then used the Josh Evans account to contact Megan and began what the girl believed was an online romance with a 16-year-old boy.

After approximately four weeks of flirtations between Evans and Megan, Drew and her co-conspirators broke off the relationship. Within an hour, Megan hanged herself in her room. She died the next day.

U.S. District Judge George Wu acquitted Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. The ruling is tentative until the judge puts it in writing and pointed to another case where a judge changed his mind after his initial ruling, signaling that the case is not final. Prosecutors are seeking a three-year prison sentence and a $300,000 fine.

Ruled Unconstitutional

The indictment alleged Drew and her co-conspirators violated MySpace’s terms of service that prohibit users from using fraudulent registration information, using accounts to obtain personal information about juvenile members, and using the MySpace communication services to harass, abuse or harm other members.

In the government’s theory, if someone signs up for an online service and then does not follow the rules of that service, the use of the service is unauthorized and thus (according to this indictment) a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. 1030. That law is used to prosecute people who break into a computer system.

However, Wu said to convict Drew would mean anyone who has ever violated MySpace’s terms of service would also be guilty of a misdemeanor. Ultimately, he decided such a ruling would be unconstitutional….

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