- Joined
- Dec 16, 2010
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- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
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- Independent
I dunno, to me internet speech is still speech. The things done to this particular girl are not protected, any judge that would differentiate internet publication from say, running an ad with the girl's breasts and personal information is a moron. So far we have child porn, harassment, defamation, and seemingly extortion, I don't know how an extra law puts any more weight on existing ones but am willing to hear what more we can do.
There have been some state laws passed since Megan Meier died, but at the time, the existing harrassment laws, etc., all contemplated real-life face to face behavior. The other problem is, we have no overarching federal law and that can create tremendous jurisdiction issues.
Lori Drew was prosecuted under a computer fraud law, and the theory was that she had been deceptive in creating a false profile for a 16 year old boy to use in luring Meghan. That behavior violated the MySpace TOS, but on appeal, the defense succeeded in arguing that fraud was not proven because Drew never obtained any property of value from the girl.