No one except Peter Lamonica is allowed to use or view this website. By reading this sentence, you're agreeing to those terms. Thank you.

Okay, now that that is over with, in case you haven't heard, Lori Drew is an evil bitch. There was some sort of drama between her daughter and another girl (13-year-old Megan Meier). So, in response she pretended to be a teenage boy, feigned interest in Megan, and then broke it off in the most horrible way she could. Soon after, Megan killed herself. This might sound like a plot out of some twisted Shakespeare play. But it is real. And what Ms. Drew did was quite possibly legal. You might wonder what it's doing in my "technology" category. You might also wonder why Ms. Drew might have gotten away with it. Surprisingly, those answers are related...

See, the way Ms. Drew was able to "disguise" herself as a teenage boy is because of the internet. She created a fake MySpace page and used that to communicate and establish a relationship with Megan. In fact, it appears that Megan never knew the true identity of this "fake boy."

Sadly, driving a teenager to suicide does not appear to be against any existing laws. I'm not sure why. Because it's just plain evil. So, as you might guess, there is a lot of outrage over what Ms. Drew did. People all over the world are calling for her head. I'm one of them. I believe this woman did something truly evil. I believe she knew the potential consequences of her actions --- or at least she SHOULD have known. And I believe she should go to jail for a very long time.

However, we should all be very careful what we wish for. Because it might just come back to haunt us.

See, Lori Drew did break a law. Kind of. She did this by violating MySpace's terms of use. You know, that big chunk of legalese you always skip over when you sign up for a website?

The law in question is the "Computer Fraud and Abuse Act." This is, in my opinion, a VERY poorly written law. It was written in 1986, when most networked computers still cost millions of dollars and belonged to large corporations. There was no "World Wide Web." There was no MySpace, no Google, no Code-Freak.com.

Basically, the CFAA was designed to punish malicious hackers who sought to interfere with, take down, or steal from corporate networks. So the punishment is very stiff. It's a felony that can send you to jail for years. And when I say, "you," I mean: you.

See, the way the law was written, it's a felony to access a computer network or system without permission. That means, technically, it's a felony for you to use any computer without express permission. In fact, if you think back to the beginning of this post, I said you weren't allowed to access my website. So, when I say you are guilty under the CFAA, I'm not lying. By reading this, you've committed a felony under US Law.

Of course, I'm not going to prosecute you, so you can sleep okay tonight. But while you're resting your head, try to think back to all those times you ever violated the terms of a website. Remember that site that asked for your birthday to confirm you were 13? Or 18? Did you lie? Did you put down a random date? Well, then you're a felon. What about MySpace? Did you ever lie on MySpace? On Facebook? If Lori Drew is convicted, misrepresenting yourself on those sites isn't funny anymore, it's a federal crime.

Now, let me make something perfectly clear: what Lori Drew did was despicable. It was horrible. No adult should ever drive a child to kill themselves. It's an awful, awful thing to do. As someone who has been touched by suicide, I can tell you that it doesn't even stop at the life of that child. Everyone she knew, everyone who ever cared about her, will never be the same. Suicide is a terrible thing, and pushing someone to do it is one of the most heinous actions I can imagine.

But I have serious reservations about this case. This is opening a Pandora's box. I don't think you'll go to jail for lying about your income on Facebook; but, I do worry that this won't be the last time this law is used as a "blanket" punishment for something evil. My guess is that the next place we'll see it is used against Botnet owners or SPAM distributors. The scary next step is that it might be used against people accessing WiFi without authorization. Sure, that can be a bad thing, someone could get on your WiFi network to steal your banking info. But Starbucks might also decide you need to buy a coffee to use their WiFi. And I don't want to be the first guy caught without a coffee in hand.

The other scary road this could head down has to do with the ubiquity of computers. Let's say someone steals a car. The cops catch them, but because no one saw them take the car in the first place, they are only guilty of receiving stolen property. Well, except for one thing, they were seen using the navigation system (which is a computer). They didn't have permission to use that "computer," so they are guilty under the CFAA. Who cares if that's not the point of the law?? It will get a car thief off the street.

We, in the technology world have been aware of the CFAA for a while. In fact, it's been debated many times because it's outdated and has the potential to be misused. But no one ever really took it seriously because it was never misapplied. But now it is being misapplied. It's being used to punish someone for doing something that is otherwise (and very sadly) legal.

So, what should we do? Well, we need to start by making it illegal to manipulate someone into suicide. I don't care if it's just limited to children or the mentally challenged. I think what Lori Drew did needs to be illegal. Of course it's too late to punish Ms. Drew. If it wasn't illegal when she did it, then she can't be punished. It's a tragedy. But I believe that the integrity of the law needs to supersede the punishment of a single person. We can't go around punishing people with obscure and outdated laws for crimes that aren't really illegal.

Lori Drew did what she did because she lacks self restraint. She saw Megan as a threat to her daughter and lashed out without consideration or regard for the consequences. She saw a way to hurt Megan and she went with it. We need to be better than that. We need to realize that sometimes, there's nothing you can do but try and prevent it form happening again.

I really hope that Lori Drew suffers terribly for what she did. But I also truly hope that she's found not guilty.

Link to Information Week article.

UPDATE: Lori Drew was found guilty, but not of felonies. I'm disturbed by the verdict, but it could have been worse. Hopefully this won't set a precedent.