I wonder if any of you are getting complaints about MY SPACE . One case involved the posting of a fake site with the photo of a young girl including all kinds of lewd suggestions and ideas of how she liked to have sex with everyone and anything.The other came from a teacher who is the subject of a created site also with her photo.It even appears that she is responding to the chats that come in to the site.She was able to print a copy. Does this fit 32.51? It's one thing to have your phone number posted on the bathroom stall but this is a whole different type of harrasment.

Martha, what the heck is going on in Beeville? Slugs trafficking in humans, sexual perverts, drugs, and now this!

Mark, Yes we offer a full array of ciminal activities to make you glad you live in a crime free town called Sweetwater. We have not seen any gonads dangling from trailer hitches but I'll bet they are all over West Texas!You probably even have those nasty bead stores there too. UCCH

Create a new technology and the criminals will come. Of course, sometimes they are the ones creating the technology. Ah well, I guess we will soon learn that what we see on the computer screen is no more likely to be accurate than the proverbial newspaper. What is the venue for a MySpace prosecution?

The county in which the person is sitting when they create the site????

The indentity theft statute is clearly meant for those situations in which someone's indentity was used to fraudulently obtain goods or services.

I see a host of Free Speech issues here as defense to any prosecution. The creation of a MySpace page is not the kind of thing covered by the statute you cited as support. At worst, it is defamation should the alleged statements be actually untrue, as opposed to one's opinions about a person (which is clearly protected speech).

One big problem that I see is how do you prove that a particular individual posted or made that specific page/comment? An IP address only links to a particulr computer (assuming that they have a static IP and not a dynamic IP, in which case the IP is meaningless). One could always say "I did not post it. Some other dude did it."

Also, there are a bunch of free proxy servers out there that make your surfing completely and totally anonymous. I went through a Cyber Crime / Forensics course when I was in the military and leanred that there is no way you can track someone down if they use this stuff.

Lastly, there are ways that you can spoof your IP address so as to reflect someone else's IP. So even if you can track it down you might end up knocking on the wrong door!!

MySpace has a security department that one can contact to report false web pages / defamatory conduct. Here is a link that you can use to report this stuff if it involves a teacher: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.faq&Category=9&Question=39


Here is a link that you can use to report an imposter for a private individual: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.faq&Category=3&Question=26

Your best bet is to leave it alone as there are too many pit-falls and available defenses to prosecution.

RTC makes the salient points concerning criminality. But, at least worries over venue are no longer a concern, since it is most likely to lead to harmless error. Substantiality of the Right

I went to a NDCAA school in VA at the National Center of Missing and exploited children because I had a child porn case to try. I came away with the impression that a good forensic examiner could trace the activity from a computer's hard drive after it is recovered by law enforcment tracing it back through the IP address.
Also I enjoyed JB's talk about My Space at a seminar but I need to know how to get into the Space.

Glad I posted before I indicted someone and violated their freedom to harrass and slander others under the guise of Freedom of Speech.

One man's harassment / slander is another's Truth.

FYI - A forensic examination is only good if you can find the computer. And even then, if the prep is using counter-forensic programs such as, for e.g., Evidence Eliminator (yes, that is it's name) programs like EnCase are useless. I found out first hand when a guy we were looking for erased his files, cache and the like using just this program. There was nothing we could use.

Combine that with easy to use, free encruption programs and you have yourself a real headache -- especially when it comes to child porn prosecutions! At least in the UK they have a law that can force you to give up your password or go to prison for several years. Here we have the 5th Amendment.

With anonymous proxy servers you can't even find the suspect's computer to begin with.

New technologies create new ways to doing crimes. At least there are still plenty of non-tech savey, stupid people to prosecute!

I'm not saying that there aren't crafty criminals getting away with computer related offenses out there, but having watched the AGs Office hit one out of the park here this week, I wouldn't just throw my hands up and say its not possible to catch these guys. You just have to be smarter than what your working with.

Our AG investigators and prosecutors are to be saluted for their dedication in helping to make our Great State a safer place for our children!