Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/john_ivancie Recent documents in John M Ivancie Jr. en-us Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:40:13 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/john_ivancie/1 http://works.bepress.com/john_ivancie/1 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:49:36 PDT This paper revolves around the novel use of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to prosecute a Missouri woman, who, with her high-school-aged daughter, and a teenage employee created a fake MySpace.com account to get information about, and harass the daughter's teen-aged friend. This harassment eventually led to that young girls suicide. No local law was broken by the trio's actions, and thus, there was nothing local law-enforcement authorities could do. Federal prosecutors in California did respond and charged the mother under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a Federal anti-hacking statute. The way prosecutors used the statute is unprecedented and risks criminalizing a wide range Internet use--making any violation of the terms of service of a website grounds for a federal criminal charge. This paper thoroughly analyzes the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, this groundbreaking case, the legal implications of such an extension of the law and more effective means to address cyber-harassment. John M. Ivancie Computer Law Criminal Law and Procedure Law and Society Law and Technology