Judge to reverse conviction in MySpace hoax

[Visper]

All I can say is I thought 3 years was light for what she did... yup this just goes to show you its ok if you contribute to the death of a child or kill someone while your driving drunk (Donte Stallworth only got 30 days) but if your cruel to animals you get 2-3 years... just wow. Im not saying that its ok to be cruel to animals but really, shouldnt the punishment be more for harm to people???

Here is the story if you havn't heard:

Judge to acquit mom in MySpace suicide - Crime & courts- msnbc.com

[Kailea]

Re: Judge to reverse conviction in MySpace hoax

....... *sigh* -.-

[Mhurron]

Re: Judge to reverse conviction in MySpace hoax

A - this was known that it might occur because of a lack of evidence
B - She was convicted on the idea that using a MySpace profile against MySpaces EULA was illegal, which is bullshit.

The short of it is the prosecution tried for the easy win by pinning this as a 'cyber' crime instead of what it actually was, harassment. You might wish that she be punished but the law worked as it should here, one side tried to make headlines with the hot button and the legal system slapped them back to reality.

[Visper]

Re: Judge to reverse conviction in MySpace hoax

Oh I understand they went about it the wrong way, I guess my point is there was no way to go after her and make it stick for what she did under current laws, why they went with the violation of TOS etc.

But that doesn't change the fact that what she did was WRONG and if you can't see that then...

[Mhurron]

Re: Judge to reverse conviction in MySpace hoax

Oh I understand they went about it the wrong way, I guess my point is there was no way to go after her and make it stick for what she did under current laws, why they went with the violation of TOS etc.

But that doesn't change the fact that what she did was WRONG and if you can't see that then...

The law does not enforce right and wrong. It deals with legal and illegal.

What she did was pretty plainly harassment. That is illegal, but it isn't very flashy. Cybercrimes though, that makes headlines, that scares people, that gets people into elected offices. They could have proved harassment, the prosecutor went for the flashy but completely bullshit charge. Case law sets precedent, the why of why this case was overturned is very important. To let this stand, allowing the breaking of a services EULA to be criminally illegal would do far more injustice then any justice for the child you think leaving it in place would have.

[Feba]

Re: Judge to reverse conviction in MySpace hoax

Good. Some things that are 'wrong' shouldn't be illegal. Being a dick is one of them. Pretending to be someone else on the internet also is, as long as you aren't attempting to defraud or libel anyone.

Like hate speech, where do you draw the line between someone stating their beliefs and someone inciting others to violence? There's plenty of evidence out there for various radio hosts inciting violence, and yet no charges. Where do you draw the line between rhetoric and reality?

If it had actually been a teenage boy who had been in a relationship with her, dumped her, and then been highly rude and derogatory, nobody outside of their community would've cared. If it had been schoolyard teasing, it would've gone mostly unnoticed. It could've been caused by any number of things in this girl's life, this just happened to be what set her off. If anyone is to blame, it is the girl for killing herself, or the parents for not being more involved in her life to be able to stop things before they got out of hand.

But the thing is, you can't legislate being nice to people. Some people are always going to be treated worse than others, whether for their attitude, appearance, origins, beliefs, associations, or whatever else. That the first instinct is to try to sue people for being mean is a much larger problem than people actually being mean. That people aren't thinking about doing more to stop suicide in general instead of focusing on one oddball case is a bigger problem. Really, this is a video game forum, how many of us were the geeks and nerds that were made fun of growing up? Obviously, we didn't kill ourselves. The only person who is truly responsible for any suicide is the dead. It might be easier to blame someone else, but they didn't pull the trigger, or tie the rope.

[DakAttack]

Re: Judge to reverse conviction in MySpace hoax

Obviously, we didn't kill ourselves.

I did. Who knew purgatory had a T1 connection?