[350] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Federal MySpace Indictment May Threaten Web
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Thu May 15 16:25:52 2008
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Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 13:06:30 -0700
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Federal MySpace Indictment May Threaten Web "Anonymity"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000385.html
Greetings. Back in January, I discussed ("Can You Go to Prison for
Lying to a Web Site?" -- http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000354.html )
the tragic case of a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide after
receiving upsetting messages via MySpace, and the efforts of authorities
to find some way to charge the senders of the messages, based on MySpace's
location in Beverly Hills.
Of particular concern to me was the apparent plan to declare that
providing false information in a profile (e.g. to MySpace) was a
crime.
I haven't seen the actual indictment yet, but word is that an L.A.
Federal Grand Jury has handed down one count of conspiracy and three
counts of "accessing protected computers without authorization" --
the latter counts presumably focused on the MySpace profile
( http://www.miamiherald.com/business/technology/story/534555.html ).
I continue to offer my sympathies in this situation. But I must
also again proactively warn that creating a precedent declaring that
the providing of false information in a Web site profile is in and
of itself a crime would be terrible public policy. It would put the
privacy of millions of law-abiding Web users at risk, who frequently
choose not to provide accurate information at Web sites that they
visit, simply to protect their own personal and/or financial privacy
and security.
While there is very little if any true anonymity on the Net, we
should all be concerned about the rising tide of demands to force
all Internet usage to be verifiably identified, regardless of the
seemingly laudable goals often associated with such efforts.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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