In 2006 Megan Meier a teenage from Missouri commited suicide as a result of cyber-bullying through Myspace. The bullying took place from what looked like 16 year olds myspace account named "Josh Evans". However, "Josh Evans" was in fact monitored by the mother of a former friend of Megan, whom the police identified as Lori Drew to punish Meier for spreading gossip about her daughter.
A federal grand jury indicted Lori Drew on May 15 2008 on three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress, and one count of criminal conspiracy. Drew was found guilty on three lesser charges (reduced from felonies to misdemeanors by the jury) on November 26, 2008. The jury was deadlocked on the fourth felony charge of criminal conspiracy.
A tragic story and a poignant reminder that those avatars you play with are real people, but what does it have to do with RMT? One of the charges against Lori Drew is that it is a federal crime to intentionally violate the Terms of Service on a website.
"For those trying to make sense of the mixed verdict in the Lori Drew case, here's a quick (and somewhat simplified) guide to what it means.
The government's theory in the Lori Drew case is that it is a federal crime to intentionally violate the Terms of Service on a website, and that it becomes a more serious crime — a felony rather than a misdemeanor — if the Terms of Service are violated to further a criminal or tortious act. The tortious act the government alleged is intentional infliction of emotional distress, which in this case was alleged to have led to Meier's suicide.
The jury agreed that it is a federal crime to intentionally violate the Terms of Service on a website, and that Drew directly or indirectly did so, but it acquitted Drew of having violated Terms of Service in furtherance of the tortious act. That is, the jury ruled that Drew is guilty of relatively lower-level crimes for violating MySpacs Terms of Service (for being involved in the setting up of a fake MySpace account). It acquitted Drew for any role in inflicting distress on Meier or for anything related to Meier's suicide. The maximum allowed penalty for the misdemeanor violations are one year in prison for each violation, although the majority of federal misdemeanors result in a sentence of probation."
If violating a TOS is a federal crime it has huge consequences for the RMT industry. Furthermore, as a TOS can say almost anything this seems like it would have far reaching unintended consequences.