The cyberbullying case of US vs Lori Drew has some disturbing results. Drew’s trial recently concluded, with her being found guilty of violating MySpace’s terms of service.

This has been bugging me, but I couldn’t put a finger on the problem. Fortunately, Jennifer Granick at Groklaw is less addled. She wrote a long post on what the outcome means to everyone who uses the internet. In a nutshell, the terms of service of any site mean what the site owner says they mean, and violating them is a criminal matter. Oy.

Now, there’s no doubt that Lori Drew is a heinous bitch and really needs to be smacked. But the prosecutor had his chance…and the jury found her not guilty of intentionally causing harm. Sorry; better luck next time. Not that the prosecutor is the only sleeze here; Congress passed, and the Prez signed, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and left it broad enough that it could be misused in this manner.

Ah, well. It’s better to punish a million innocents than to let one guilty woman go free, right?

Submit to Stumbled Upon!