Well, it turns out that it just might be illegal to impersonate someone on MySpace and crush a teenage girl's spirit so much that she ends up hanging herself.
Just when you thought the saga of Megan Meier was over with and the villain was going to get off free and clear, the culprit Lori Drew has been indicted on charges that could lead her to as much as 20 years imprisonment. Certainly no one can disagree that what Ms. Drew did was evil, at worst, and downright scummy at best.
The problem here is that the charges, at this point, are pretty flimsy at best. The charges filed, according to the LA Times, are "three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on the girl and one count of conspiracy." Add to that the fact that the case is being tried far outside the jurisdiction of the Missouri town where the incidents took place, and the government is going to have a very hard time bringing this case to term.
Only in the biggest stretch in the sense of the word can you call MySpace a protected system, especially when what all Drew did was click on a very prominent sign-up button, and then enter false information for the personal data.