Conviction Reversed in MySpace Hoax Case

Well, it's official: After indicating in early July that he was inclined to toss Lori Drew's conviction for a MySpace hoax that ended with the suicide of 13 year-old Megan Meier, District Court Judge George Wu of the Central District of California has issued his opinion overturning the conviction.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Lori Drew was the mother of one of Megan Meier's classmates.  Mother and daughter decided to torment Megan by creating a bogus MySpace account for a fictional teenage boy, whom they called "Josh Evans."  This creation of a false account violated MySpace's terms of service.
Drew and other participants in the scheme had "Josh" contact Meier over MySpace and flirt with her for several days.  Eventually, "Josh" broke things off with Megan and told her that the world would be better off without her in it.  Meier killed herself later that day, at which point Drew deleted the "Josh Evans" account, according to the indictment against her.

Prosecutors brought felony and misdemeanor charges against Drew under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.  Essentially, the indictment accused Drew of violating the CFAA by intentionally accessing a computer without authorization or in excess of authorization when she violated the MySpace terms of service.  A jury acquited Drew on the felony charges, but found her guilty of a misdemeanor violation of the CFAA. 

Wu held that the conviction ran afoul of the vagueness doctrine and could not stand.  Upholding a conviction under the CFAA for violation of a website's terms of service and nothing more, Wu wrote, would grant the government power to prosecute an intolerably large amount of online behavior and would give citizens no clear guidance about which online activities violated the law. 

The case is difficult from an emotional standpoint.  Meier's death was tragic, and Drew's behavior was deplorable.  It is easy to vilify Drew and demand some form of justice for the cruelty she inflicted on a younger, more vulnerable individual. 

From an online rights perspective, however, it seems like the correct legal result. 

George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, who argued Drew's motion to dismiss the charges in January, writes in the Volokh Conspiracy blog that:

This was an extremely important test case for the scope of the computer crime statutes, with tremendously high stakes for the civil liberties of every Internet user.

Internet users often don't understand exactly what the terms of service for a website are, and would probably be unaware that a violation of a site's terms of service could rise to the level of criminal conduct. 

This, in turn, could render many commonplace Internet habits illegal - making criminals out of us all, in effect.

Conviction Reversed in MySpace Hoax Case

See Also:
Judge Officially Reverses Lori Drew's Conviction (WSJ Law Blog)
Judge Overturns Conviction of Lori Drew in Cyberbullying Case (ABA Journal)