这是一则11月27日的旧闻，当天本想贴上，但好像sina
blog那天出了故障。今天想起来，其实这个事情还是有一定意义。
事情起因是美国密苏里州49岁妇女洛丽·德鲁利用虚假身份在“我的空间”注册，冒充一名16岁少男与13岁女孩梅甘·迈尔（迈尔曾是德鲁的儿子的朋友）交往，对其进行讥讽辱骂并致其自杀（关于此事的详细经过，见http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan_Meier）。27日的新闻讲的就是联邦地区法院判决洛丽·德鲁罪名成立。她将受到最高3年监禁和罚款30万美元的惩罚。
记得小时候听广播评书《三国演义》，袁阔成分析诸葛亮骂死王朗的故事时，替罗贯中打圆场，说这可能是对方心脏病发作导致的，这令我我印象非常深刻（王朗在《世说新语》里也出现过，还是扮演负面角色，见《世说·德行》王朗、华歆乘船遇贼人求救故事）。没想到在网络的虚似交往中，这种现象也会出现——虽然没有小说里描写的那么夸张。可见言语真的能够杀人，甚至虚拟对象的语言也会造成现实的伤害。今年4月我在社科院的中国首届人际传播论坛上发言的是《人际传播的阴暗面》，介绍和讨论了这方面的问题，这则新闻提供了一个活生生的例子——而且是互联网上出现的案例，值得关注。
附《纽约时报》报道原文：
November 27, 2008
Verdict in MySpace Suicide Case
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
LOS ANGELES — A federal jury here issued what legal experts said
was the country’s first cyberbullying verdict Wednesday, convicting
a Missouri woman of three misdemeanor charges of computer fraud for
her involvement in creating a phony account on MySpace to trick a
teenager, who later committed suicide.
The jury deadlocked on a fourth count
of conspiracy against the woman, Lori Drew, 49, and the judge,
George H. Wu of Federal District Court, declared a mistrial on that
charge.
Although it was unclear how severely
Ms. Drew would be punished — the jury reduced the charges to
misdemeanors from felonies, and no sentencing date was set — the
conviction was highly significant, computer fraud experts said,
because it was the first time that a federal statute designed to
combat computer crimes was used to prosecute what were essentially
abuses of a user agreement on a social networking site.
Under federal sentencing guidelines,
Ms. Drew could face up to three years in prison and $300,000 in
fines, though she has no previous criminal record. Her lawyer has
asked for a new trial.
In a highly unusual move, Thomas P.
O’Brien, the United States attorney in Los Angeles, prosecuted the
case himself with two subordinates after law enforcement officials
in Missouri determined Ms. Drew had broken no local laws.
Mr. O’Brien, who asserted jurisdiction
on the ground that MySpace is based in Los Angeles, where its
servers are housed, said the verdict sent an “overwhelming message”
to users of the Internet.
“If you are going to attempt to annoy
or go after a little girl and you’re going to use the Internet to
do so,” he said, “this office and others across the country will
hold you responsible.”
During the five-day trial, prosecutors
portrayed Ms. Drew as working in concert with her daughter, Sarah,
who was then 13, and Ashley Grills, a family friend and employee of
Ms. Drew’s magazine coupon business in Dardenne Prairie, Mo.
Testimony showed that they created a
teenage boy, “Josh Evans,” as an identity on MySpace to communicate
with Sarah’s nemesis, Megan Meier, who was 13 and had a history of
depression and suicidal impulses.
After weeks of online courtship with
“Josh,” Megan was distressed one afternoon in October 2006,
according to testimony at the trial, when she received an e-mail
message from him that said, “The world would be a better place
without you.”
Ms. Grills, who is now 20, testified
under an immunity agreement that shortly after that message was
sent, Megan wrote back, “You’re the kind of boy a girl would kill
herself over.” Megan hanged herself that same afternoon in her
bedroom.
Although the jury appeared to reject
the government’s contention that Ms. Drew had intended to harm
Megan — a notion underlying the felony charges — the convictions
signaled the 12 members’ belief that she had nonetheless violated
federal laws that prohibit gaining access to a computer without
authorization.
Specifically, the jury found Ms. Drew
guilty of accessing a computer without authorization on three
occasions, a reference to the fraudulent postings on MySpace in the
name of Josh Evans.
Legal and computer fraud experts said
the application of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, passed
in 1986 and amended several times, appeared to be expanding with
technology and the growth of social networking on the Internet.
More typically, prosecutions under the act have involved people who
hack into computer systems.
“Keep in mind that social networking
sites like MySpace did not exist until recently,” said Nick
Akerman, a New York lawyer who has written and lectured extensively
on the act. “This case will be simply another important step in the
expanded use of this statute to protect the public from computer
crime.”
Other computer fraud experts said they
found the verdict chilling.
“As a result of the prosecutor’s highly
aggressive, if not unlawful, legal theory,” said Matthew L. Levine,
a former federal prosecutor who is a defense lawyer in New York,
“it is now a crime to ‘obtain information’ from a Web site in
violation of its terms of service. This cannot be what Congress
meant when it enacted the law, but now you have it.”
Ms. Drew, who showed little emotion
during the trial, sat stone-faced as the clerk read the jury’s
verdict and left the courtroom quickly, her face red and twisted
with rage.
Her lawyer, H. Dean Steward, said
outside the courthouse that he believed the trial was grandstanding
by Mr. O’Brien in an effort to keep his job, with the coming change
in the White House.
“I don’t have any satisfaction at all,”
Mr. Steward said of the verdict.
Judge Wu scheduled a hearing on the
request for a new trial for late December.
Since the story surrounding the suicide
became public last year, Mr. O’Brien has discussed with his staff
how his feelings as a parent motivated him to bring the charges
against Ms. Drew. He alluded to those feelings on Wednesday at a
news conference.
“This was obviously a case that means a
lot to me,” he said.
The case has been a collection of
anomalies. Judge Wu appeared ambivalent regarding some key issues
at the trial, like whether any testimony about Megan’s suicide
would be allowed (he did allow it) and how to rule on a defense
motion to throw out the charges (he had not ruled as of
Wednesday).
Judge Wu was appointed to the federal
bench less than two years ago, and it is difficult to establish his
sentencing record. But Mr. Akerman, the computer fraud expert, said
jail time was common even for first-time offenders in computer
fraud cases.
“If I were her,” he said of Ms. Drew,
“I would not be celebrating over the Thanksgiving weekend.”
Tina Meier, Megan’s mother, said in a
news conference after the verdict that she hoped Ms. Drew would
serve jail time, and that she felt satisfied.
“This day is not any harder than the
day when I found Megan,” Ms. Meier said. “This has never been about
vengeance. This is about justice. For me it’s absolutely worth it
every single day sitting in that court hoping there was
justice.”
