Felony Hacking and Conspiracy.
That’s what federal prosecutors have decided it is when someone leaves nasty comments on someone’s myspace profile like happened in the Megan Meier case.
The reasoning? (if you can call it that)
According to the indictment, Drew and others allegedly conspired to violate MySpace’s terms of service.
Here’s what they actually wrote on the DoJ Website:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cac/pressroom/pr2008/063.html
To become a member of MySpace, individuals are required to submit registration information – including name and date of birth – and have to agree to certain TOS that regulate their use of the website. Among other things, the MySpace TOS require prospective members to provide truthful and accurate registration information; to refrain from using any information obtained from MySpace services to harass, abuse, or harm other people; to refrain from soliciting personal information from anyone under 18; to refrain from promoting information that they know is false or misleading; and to refrain from posting photographs of other people without their consent. The indictment alleges that Drew and her coconspirators violated all of those provisions.
ergo:
Violate the ToU or ToS of any Website and you are a felon if a Federal Prosecutor wants to press charges.
Apparently George Orwell just jumped the gun by a few years. Welcome to the New Totalitarian Regime of the America. Stalin was impudent next to the power these guys usurping.
Google Guidelines say to no-follow all purchased links? Didn’t comply?
You are a Felon.
Left a comment that is against the ToS of any website?
You are a Felon.
Singed up to multiple Free Accounts in Violation of a sites Terms of Use?
You are a Felon.
Have you ever Entered False information into the user fields of a Website?
You are a Felon.
Sites like the New York Times Say this:
“We reserve the right, at our complete discretion, to change these Terms of Use at any time by posting revised terms on the site. It is your responsibility to check periodically for any changes we may make to these Terms of Use. Your continued use of this site following the posting of changes to these terms or other policies means you accept the changes.”
ergo: You’re a felon whenever we want to change the rules.
Do you know what the ToS of using seoblackhat.com are?
If this Myspace case flies, we’ll all be felons.
Especially you.
4 Responses to “You Are a Felon if this Myspace Megan Meier Case Sticks.”
Forgive me, but didn’t someone take their own life over the abuse that was left? These ToS are put there for a reason by the site owners, and it is for The Site Owners to decide if their ToS have been broken. Being able to prosecute someone for breaking ToS is not in the Federal Courts best interest, surely they are merely using this as another pointer in their case?
One thing that’s always got me is that the usual America ToS’s for high-speed internet access state that the user agrees not to transmit or receive anything “pornographic”. Yeah, right. Must be 50% or more who violate that.
As far as this court case goes, though, keep in mind that a prosecutor is able to claim anything he or she wants in a case, and to put forth any legal argument. The argument has not been judged yet. When it is, I doubt this line of reasoning will stick.
It’s scary and yeah it sounds crazy but I don’t think you’re that far off here. The laws are not clearly defined for the web and that puts even the gray-liners at risk. Any day, precedents can be set and all of sudden something we’re doing can become illegal or worse, a felony. Seems like a lot of blackhat seos don’t want to discuss the legalities of their practice and I really can’t comprehend why. Thanks for posting this Quadszilla. This is exactly the kind of stuff we should become more aware of.
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You should setup your ToS to say nobody is allowed to leave a comment… We’ll all be felons!