Misdemeanor Conviction For Lori Drew Leads To More Legal Debate
The news over the Thanksgiving weekend surrounding the Megan Meier case has left some feeling empty and others frightened by the state of the law. On Wednesday, just before the holiday weekend started, a jury convicted Lori Drew with three misdemeanors, and cleared her of three hacking related charges, which were federal crimes. A fourth charge, conspiracy, was undecided, as the jury was locked on the issue.
The verdict in the Megan Meier case, a light slapping of the wrist, was not the outcome that most of the people who have followed the case online had hoped for.
The mother, Lori Drew, was indicted on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress. In the end, all Drew got were three misdemeanor counts of computer fraud for having misrepresented herself on the popular social network MySpace.
Putting aside the emotional charge of the trial, legal experts agree that the verdict sets an interesting, if not completely frightening, precedent. Essentially the conviction amounts to Lori Drew being found guilty of violating the MySpace terms of service. This is the first time criminal charges have occurred for violation of the terms of service on a Web site.
“It will be interesting to see if issues of safety and security will eventually trump the hallmark ideology of free, largely anonymous or pseudonymous participation in cyberspace,” said Sameer Hinduja, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Florida Atlantic University told the NY Times.
Tags: computer fraud, criminal charges, criminal justice, criminology, emotional charge, emotional distress, federal crimes, florida atlantic university, hallmark, holiday weekend, legal debate, legal experts, lori, meier case, misdemeanor conviction, misdemeanor counts, misdemeanors, ny times, safety and security, thanksgiving weekend