New York Times, Judge Throws Out Conviction in Cyberbullying Case 0
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Thursday threw out the conviction of a Missouri woman on charges of computer fraud for her role in creating a false MySpace account to dupe a teenager, who later committed suicide.
The judge, George H. Wu, said that he was tentatively acquitting the woman, Lori Drew, of misdemeanor counts of gaining access to computers without authorization and that the ruling would be final when he issued his written decision.
In November, a federal jury here convicted Ms. Drew of three misdemeanor charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal law intended to combat computer crimes. Legal experts followed the case closely, saying it was the first time the statute had been used to prosecute a patron of a social networking site for abuses of the site.
But on Thursday, Judge Wu said the federal statute was too “vague” when applied in this case and that were he to allow Ms. Drew’s conviction to stand, “one could literally prosecute anyone who violates a terms of service agreement” in any way.