Kevin Rose Allegedly Guilty of Felony Computer Hacking

@kevinscold: hanging out w/@kevinrose, making his head hurt and nose stuffed up… hopefully he’ll take me to @digg tomorrow.It’s mildly amusing, but is it legal?

At Mashable, in my coverage of Lori Drew’s then-pending trial, I’ve have explained repeatedly that a very dangerous precedent is being set in the aftermath of teenage Megan Meier’s cyberbullying and subsequent suicide. Kevin’s actions in creating a fake Twitter profile for his recent cold mirror the actions Lori Drew is being accused of doing on MySpace.

Mike Massnick noted that developments have occurred in the case Wednesday:

While the judge in the case decided not to dismiss the case, he apparently has decided that evidence of Meier’s suicide will not be allowed in the case. This, at least, is a good decision. The lawsuit itself has nothing to do with the suicide, and allowing it to be used in front of a jury would likely lead to the same emotional response that resulted in the original charges being filed. Of course, with the case getting so much widespread publicity, you’d have to imagine that many jury members will already be familiar with what happened in the case.

The fact that so many potential jurors will already be familiar with the story is a large part of the issue with the judge deciding to let stand the case. Obviously, even though the jurors are sure to be instructed not to take the circumstances of Megan’s death into consideration, since the story is so well known and the two are so inextricably linked, they will.

Given the emotions tied to the case, this will set an unfortunate precedent for the future.

Lori Drew Isn’t Technically On Trial for Murder
It’s important to note that Lori isn’t being prosecuted for what she did with the fake MySpace profile, only that she created one with false personal details.

It isn’t realistic to expect that everyone who sets up a joke profile as Kevin did can expect prosecution for it. But just as Kevin could theoretically be held liable, so then could Fake Steve Jobs and Drama 2.0.  They’ve both created fake personas online at social networks and social media sites - the very action being termed “computer hacking.”

By making innocuous actions into criminal actions, it devalues the law and blinds law enforcement to actual online criminal behavior. In an age where anyone’s free speech becomes illegal, only unpopular speech will be prosecuted.

This post was written by WinExtra contributor Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins. You can also find him writing on his personal blog - rizzn.com - as well as at Mashable!