I understand the point you are making. And I’d like to offer my own view from personal experience and why we need laws to protect people from cyber-harassment.. The MySpace hoax case is unique and tragic. In my opinion, the people who did this weren’t trying to kill the girl, they were trying to inflict emotional harm. They did both, egregiously. The crimes that Lori Drews are charged with reflect only what they CAN possibly charge her with. I’m not sure that creating a phoney account is illegal or if it should be, but lets try to make some distinctions clearer.
In my case, I was harassed and threatened for nearly two years on the web both at home and at work. The perpetrator could only be charged with lying to an FBI agent because the crimes [harassment- now signed into federal law] weren’t in place.
Sure, there’s snarky comments on a blog or a mean myspace page but then there’s a more directed kind of harassment which can affect your life, such as your job and your sense of well-being [in the case of threats].
