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Internet "terms of service" may open cyberspace can of wormsDec 03, 2008 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Lie to an online dating service about your weight, go to jail. Tell your kid to use Google for homework, go to jail. Have the middle name Ralph, go to jail. A group of legal and Internet observers are warning these bizarre consequences could be the logical sequels to last week's cyber-bullying conviction in Los Angeles. In that case, a jury convicted Lori Drew of misdemeanors for posing as a teenager on MySpace and writing messages believed to have driven 13-year-old Megan Meier to commit suicide. The prosecution is seen as the first cyber-bullying conviction under laws normally used to prosecute computer hackers. Critics of the verdict say what she was actually convicted of was violating MySpace's terms of service -- those rarely read lists of conditions on Internet sites. Essentially, by violating those terms, her use of MySpace was unauthorized, making her, in essence, a hacker. "It's a problem, because the vast majority of people don't read terms of service," said Jennifer Granick, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who filed an amicus brief in the Drew case. Other lawyers disagree, saying prosecution for simple violations of terms of service is unlikely. The conviction is "very worrisome," Granick said, because terms of service are routinely ignored. The brief filed by Granick and Phillip Malone, a Harvard clinical law professor, pointed out that one software company stuck -- within its terms of service -- an offer to give $1,000 to the first person to write in. More than 3,000 people installed the software before someone read the terms, noticed the offer and claimed the reward. Other terms of service bans that Granick and other critics said could be prosecuted: - eHarmony, the dating site, states, "You will not provide inaccurate, misleading or false information to eHarmony or to any other user." So don't lie about your weight, age or marital status. - Google's terms of service say the user must be of legal age to enter into a contract with them -- that is, to agree to the terms of service. So don't encourage your minor child to use Google. And Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and an associate law professor at George Washington University, responded to the verdict with tongue-in-cheek terms of service for the blog volokh.com that included: - comments must be relevant - users middle name must not be Ralph. "I've always thought Ralph was a funny name," Kerr wrote. - users may not be employees of the U.S. Government. - users must never have visited Alaska. While Kerr, Granick and others say prosecutions for violating such terms are a real possibility, Nick Akerman, a New York attorney and expert on computer fraud said that's "totally ridiculous." "Who's going to prosecute that case to begin with?" Akerman said. The law will be used only to prosecute cases with real criminal intent, he said. The law is less vague and no more subject to mail fraud statutes, Akerman said. Under those, technically, a college student could be prosecuted for writing home for money and lying that it would be used for books instead of beer, he said. "They don't know what they're talking about," Akerman said of Drew verdict critics. Meanwhile, appeals of the verdict are expected. The possibility of other terms of service prosecutions is unclear. "It remains to be seen," said Granick. But just so you know, www.sacbee.com's terms of service say you can't impersonate another person or provide false or misleading information. ------ Call The Bee's Carlos Alcala, (916) 321-1987. To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |