Web Hoax Conviction Under Attack

A jury found Lori Drew guilty of three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization, in violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In the past, that law has primarily been used in hacking and trademark theft cases. Use in the manner Drew was convicted is unprecedented. Drew faces up to a $300,000 fine and three years in prison.

 

Drew was accused of involvement in a hoax in which she helped create a fictitious 16-year-old boy on MySpace and then sending messages from the character appearing to flirt with teenage neighbor Megan Meier. She then made it appear the fictitious boy made derogatory comments about Meier, saying the world would be better without her. Meier hanged herself shortly afterwards.

 

Drew was initially charged with felony conspiracy and of intentionally causing emotional harm. She was found not guilty on the emotional harm charge and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the conspiracy charge.The trial occurred in Los Angles, the jurisdiction where servers of the social networking site are located.

 

The attorney seeking dismissal has argued that it is not a federal crime to violate the terms of service of MySpace.

Facebook and Others Accused of Violating the Privacy of Users

Suit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Facebook and other defendants, including Blockbuster, Hotwire, Overstock.com, Zappos and Gamefly. The litigation, Lane et al, vs. Facebook et al, alleges the group of defendants violated a variety of laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Video Privacy Protection Act, California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and the California Computer Crime Law.

 

Facebook, a social networking site, was launched in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, while at Harvard University. Zuckerberg has been the target of several earlier suits from former classmates who say he stole their intellectual property, including computer source code. He has also been the subject of a suit by ConnectU, which hired him during his sophomore year at Harvard, to complete programming for their site. The ConnectU suit, which was dismissed without prejudice on technical grounds, claimed Zuckerberg intentionally sabotaged development there, while using the stolen code to help develop Facebook.

 

Facebook launched the Beacon system in 2007, which allowed third-party websites to include a Facebook script by on their sites, to send information about the actions of Facebook users on those sites, such as purchases made, commenting, and games played, back to Facebook. This opt-out scripting prompted serious privacy concerns and eventually led to a change in policy by Facebook

 

The Lane litigation focuses on the joint marketing venture between Facebook and the other defendants, which the plaintiffs allege violated users’ privacy by sharing personal information about other Web sites. Information about those activities was then published on the user’s home and profile pages on Facebook and broadcast to designated “friends” on Facebook.com.

 

The plaintiffs are asking the court to certify the class and award injunctive relief and monetary damages. A copy of the Complaint is available online.