Comments on Remember the Heartbreaking MySpace Suicide Hoax?

1. Need to add an "h" to the beginning of the URL

2. Hallelujah. Whatever price this woman will pay for her cruelty won't ever be enough, but it's a start.

thanks, fixed.

is this gonna stick? napoleon xiv, what say you?

I'd say it's good drama, but as any sort of basis for a criminal conviction? No way.

This is the most ridiculous indictment I have seen in a long time.

The crime alleged is the violation of a law that really targets people who hack into computers for economic gain. The indictment alleges that this constitutes hacking because the person posted on myspace in violation of the terms of service. And it alleges that this hacking was in furtherance of a "tortious" act, i.e. an act that one sould sue for, because one can sue for emotional distress.

This is really reaching, and the prosecutor knows it. It's not an attempt to enforce any real law, it's an attempt to satifsy the bloodlust of those like commenter #1, who see the law as a mechanism for enforcing cosmic justice instead of just a set of rules to play by.

What he just said.

I've never seen a violation of "MySpace Terms of Use" used as a predicate for a criminal charge before.

Well, now that there's an indictment, it's only a matter of time before this gets turned into a "Ripped From the Headlines" episode of Law & Order.

They should let her walk from a criminal conviction in return for serving two tours of duty with ground troops in Iraq.

That would be fair.

Burn the witch!

She'll get off, because she'll be able to prove that she didn't send most of the messages. It's pretty clear to me that access to the account was pretty widespread, and there were possibly a dozen people egging Megan on to suicide, all of whom were fellow teenagers (and who will be fucked up in their heads for the rest of their lives, but then, they do live in suburban MO). The mom set it off, because she is emotionally retarded (i.e., still a teenager herself in her moral construction). Stupid bitch. She's taken a remarkable amount of shit for it already.

It's funny that international treaties ratified by the US Senate are not really the law but the MySpace terms of use are enforceable by the police.

Thinkprogress reported last month on grandstanding Bush appointee U.S. Attorney Tom O’Brien, that prosecutor’s boss. He’s been catching shit from Sen. Feinstein for disbanding the public corruption task force once they got close to indicting a Republican congressman, and catching shit from his prosecutors for urging them to file all the indictments they can, no matter how weak the cases, to increase federal funding for his office. He fires prosecutors who don’t indict x times every quarter. Yeesh.

Wow, I'm filled with "bloodlust". Great call, there.

I guess no one here was bullied while growing up? It may be irrational, but this story brought out a lot of painful feelings and memories in me, and I empathize with the poor girl. Sorry, I'm not going to be all cool and detached here. But I'm also not asking for the lady's head on a spike or anything.

No one's going to disagree with you, laterite. No one is defending that woman. But you DID say "whatever price this woman will pay for her cruelty won't ever be enough", which does in fact include "head on a spike". That's the thing; the bitch did a very nasty thing, and has responded really unpleasantly to being called on it -- but she's also got millions of total strangers who've never been anywhere near Missouri baying for her blood. Check some of the sites for evidence of this. Head on spike is quite mild compared to some of it -- and it's not just talk. And "whatever" really does mean "whatever".

Oh, what happened was unconscionable.

But there's no real basis for a criminal conviction to be had.

Fair enough. I guess I meant "whatever" within the bounds of the legal system, not caveman justice. The inflamed emotional response I have had, and which in fact is still coursing through me as I type, is obviously not the way civilized society should solve these problems. I just wish there was more legal ground for punishing bullying acts, especially when instigated by a so-called adult, beyond invoking a website's terms of use as a legal basis.

End of my post should read "...as the basis for a criminal case". Okay, I'm done with Slog for the day. Way too emotionally stirred up here.

What's wrong with bloodlust?

Her ass needs to be hung out to dry. I'm not sure how familiar any of you are with Missouri, but the area she's in is hardly suburban. It's not St Louis, but it's also not Troy.

As for proving her involvement--if her computer's IP is on it, she's the responsible party if her child is a minor. And the parents of anyone else whose IP is on it are responsible, as well.

Hang 'em all, let God sort 'em out.

I think she's been pretty thoroughly shunned by her community, her business has been destroyed, and anywhere she moves, this story follows her and will haunt her till the day she dies.

Even where the justice system has no mechanism for dealing with a problem, justice still gets done.

It is a terrible situation all the way around.
Being in STL, it is all over the news. She has pushed and pushed for this, the state declined to prosecute,so she went to the federal level. The mom does not want justice, she wants revenge.
Not that I blame her, but letting the victim decide who gets prosecuted is very dangerous.

I doubt they'll be able to prove anything with IP numbers two years later. Even if MySpace can come up with usable logs, which I doubt, I'm sure the Drew's computer's IP number was dynamically assigned and probably changed fifty times since then -- many more if they're on dialup.

I'm sure the more able legal thinkers out there are correct in their view that this is mostly a baseless case. That said, it's a sad fact some new law will have to be written to protect kids-people from whatever the fuck one might call this "bully-mom-next-door-responsible-for-a-childs-suicide" situation. If nothing else, I'm glad this woman will be dragged through the headlines and judicial system, hiring lawyers and moving from her home...what she did was nothing short of hateful, I feel no pity for her.

I think she's been pretty thoroughly shunned by her community, her business has been destroyed, and anywhere she moves, this story follows her and will haunt her till the day she dies.

Good. She deserves it. There haven't been a lot of stories of bigger assbags out there lately than this one. I hope it haunts her employment, employability, work-readiness and every other corner of her life for the rest of her life. She helped rob a kid of her own life, she forefeits her own. It's just that simple.

Tatoo a picture of that girl hanging in the closet on her eyelids, and let the bitch sleep at night. Fuck her.

Like I said earlier, I am in STL and it has been all over the news.
The woman who has been indicted has denied what she has been accused of...I don't know the truth, but neither does anyone on slog.
I can't believe that such a liberal crowd hopes to burn her at the stake w/o so much as hearing her side. Glad she's dragged through the mud, hope she's haunted where ever she goes...so much for innocent until...
Since when is the media accurate or trust worthy? Do you know the girl had been in psychiatric care/medication/counseling prior to any of this?
I feel for the family, and everyone involved, all the way around. Like I said, I don't know what happened, but I'm not ready to throw the woman under the bus.
It took more than 2 years for the feds to decide to indict...
Glad you haters aren't on my jury..

The chance of getting a conviction are slim. The only real positive that may come out of this would be the slim chance that they can prove who exactly was involved in this sick hoax (whether it was that woman, her daughter, or people completely unrelated) and let everyone know. Being permanently ostracized by the community may be the best you can hope to come to the sick fucks to did this.

Oh, please. She has a vajayjay, so she'll never be held responsible for her actions.

#8 Don't give the government any ideas. Soon anyone who gets arrested for anything will get sent off to war.

But I do hope this woman gets punished, even if it's only in civil court.