The case of Lori Drew, the Missouri mother who posed as the teenage boy “Josh Evans” on MySpace to harass a neighbor girl who ultimately committed suicide over “Josh’s” remarks, is tragic, but has also become a ridiculous bit of legal theater. Unable to find a crime to charge Drew with, the federal prosecutor finally resorted to accusing her of computer fraud, and recently won three misdemeanor convictions against her.

Now at a personal level, what Lori Drew did to a young teenage girl was unconscionable. Adults should know better than that. And at a visceral level, it does seem she should be somehow responsible. But as far as 13-year old Megan Meier ever knew, the “boy” who befriended her over the Internet and broke her heart was real. And while somewhat emotionally cruel, what Drew said while posing as “Josh” was not outside the set of things which a thoughtless teenage boy might have said to a girl. All of which poses some interesting questions.

What if Josh was a real 13-year old boy and said, “The world would be a better place without you.” Then Megan committed suicide. Or what if Megan and Josh were 22 instead of 13? Would Josh be a criminal? I don’t think so. And that would be true if this was an Internet based relationship or a real world one.

What if Drew had created Josh, but Megan hadn’t committed suicide. Rather, she went to the police and had Drew arrested for fraud. Would she have been convicted? I rather doubt it. The laws used are really intended to thwart computer hackers. And if creating an online persona with false information is now a crime, the courts are going to be backlogged for a very very long time. Apparently starting with indictments against the police themselves who use fake online profiles to gather evidence.

What if the relationship between Megan and “Josh” took place over email or via the Postal Service? There would then have been no terms of service violations under which to prosecute Drew. A sad case, a contemptible act, but not a crime.

While the deception here was large and had tragic consequences, there was not an obviously illegal act. If there was, I would have thought it might have been some form of child abuse. That’s the aspect of this which is really enraging here. However, this is not a tech-crime. While the Internet was used as a tool, there was nothing really Internet specific about what went on. This was a deceptive relationship that resulted in emotional trauma. Would everyone who has that merit badge please stand up?

The cruel reality is that Drew did something bad for which we have no law. Twisting the application of a law so that she might be at least convicted of something is a dangerous precedent. We don’t want to go there.