December 7, 2008

• Do you ever read the "Terms of Service" for any website? Yeah, neither do I really. Well after the case of the "MySpace suicide" has reached a conclusion, we may want to pay a little more attention to those Terms of Service. Under the government’s interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (the
  federal anti-hacking law), somebody was actually convicted of violating MySpace's terms of service, with a punishment that could face up to three years in prison and $300,000 in fines. Wow, really? Being familiar with the case, the person responsible of provoking the MySpace suicide should be punished, but this also affects all of us using the internet.

  The verdict is ofcourse going into appeals, and I'm pretty sure we're not all really felons for violating a website's Terms of Service. I mean look at Google's ToS, which states that you have to be at least 18 years of age just to use a search engine. How about all those people who lie about their age in social networking sites that specifically request you provide accurate information about yourselves? We're not all going to start getting convicted for a felony for uploading concert footage on youtube are we?

  I'm a little bit optimistic that it won't be as bad as it sounds, but then the law isn't exactly a flawless system. So uh, just be more careful with what you do with the internet, and start reading those Terms of Service?

  VIDEO -
  - Lori Drew Myspace Suicide case

  LINKS -
  - The Backlash Against the MySpace Conviction
  - MySpace ruling could lead to jail for lying online daters, others
  - Editorial: Internet users should network cautiously due to lack of ...
  - Does the Drew verdict make ToS breakers potential felons?

  • 8:40 am
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