Judge: TOS violations not a crime in teen suicide case

9-1-2009 National:

US district Judge George H. Wu has dismissed the case against Lori Drew, throwing out her misdemeanor conviction for unauthorized access. The ruling will be welcomed by Internet rights groups who feared that the case would set a precedent allowing terms-of-service violations to be prosecuted under anti-hacking laws.

Alleged cyber bully Lori Drew was officially acquitted on Friday when US District Judge George H. Wu issued a ruling in which he said that violating a website's terms of service is not a criminal offense. This ruling affirms an opinion that he issued last month when he revealed his intention to throw out the conviction against Drew.

Drew was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2008 for her role in a MySpace hoax that led to the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier. Prosecutors charged her under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), contending that her violation of MySpace's terms of service was tantamount to hacking. They rationalized this legal theory by arguing that using a website while failing to conform with its usage policy constitutes "unauthorized access," which is forbidden by the CFAA.

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