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Old 03-31-2008, 10:25 PM
Uthgar the Brazen
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Default Holding MySpace to blame

This floors me.

I'm not a fan of "blame the victim," but I feel okay about "blame the victim's family" in this case. Their daughter misrepresented her age in creating a MySpace profile and got chatty with someone who turned out to be a monster. At that age, well, I suppose it's not entirely unexpected that she fell for what I bet were really bad lines (probably involving "soul mate" at one point). At that age, I was all about teh luv st00p1dz, too.

But who took her on the road trip that ended so horribly? Who ultimately is responsible for that minor's welfare?

MySpace has rules in place about age and content. It has a boatload of information about online predators and how to protect one's personal information. Why, by any reasonable stretch of the imagination, would someone try to hold a web-service morally responsible here? Unless an admin drove her to meet the turns-out-to-be-a-rapist?

:facepalm:
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Old 03-31-2008, 10:39 PM
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Default Re: Holding MySpace to blame

People can't admit they are stupid, irresponsible, or apathetic so they blame everyone but themselves.

The article doesn't say exactly how she got to Texas...is there a more complete account somewhere on the web?
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Old 03-31-2008, 11:06 PM
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Default Re: Holding MySpace to blame

Quote:
$30 million suit
:greed:

And then on the other hand, the parents stand to benefit by showing how they aren't to blame for not preventing this. I mean, the daughter was caught in a web, it isn't their fault.
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Old 04-01-2008, 03:26 PM
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Default Travis is to blame!

Quote:
Originally Posted by O.P. article
contacted her through MySpace and corresponded for several weeks before he allegedly sexually assaulted her during a meeting in Travis County, Texas, in May 2006.
Well, technically, they met on the street in Travis County, Texas.

The parents should sue The State of Texas too!
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Old 04-01-2008, 04:32 PM
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Default Re: Holding MySpace to blame

Doe v. MySpace, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 843 (W.D. Tex. 2007) (pdf, 14 pages).

The trial judge dismissed the case right out of the gate based on immunity provisions of the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996 and the absence of any common law duty of care. The CDA part of the ruling is light years off, but the duty-of-care portion looks bulletproof and forms a completely independent basis for affirming the judgment. Bottom line: These folks have no chance of success on appeal.
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Old 04-01-2008, 04:48 PM
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Default Re: Holding MySpace to blame

I am reading the case, Maturin, and they keep saying "Failing to take safety measures" or whatever. My question is, what measures could possibly be taken by MySpace to prevent people from communicating with other people? How can they determine who is lying about their age, who is a predator, etc?

In such a lawsuit, is the plaintiff required to provide some kind of evidence that appropriate "safety measures" exist elsewhere or are possible within the fabric of reality?
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Old 04-02-2008, 01:27 AM
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Default Re: Holding MySpace to blame

The opinion explains things pretty well for the most part. The elements of a negligence claim are (1) duty, (2) breach, (3) causation and (4) damages. The first element was the issue here.

Whether a duty exists is a question of law for the judge to decide. Generally, we're all obliged to act as a reasonably careful person would act under the same or similar circumstances. That's the standard common law duty of ordinary care. However, there's an assload of exceptions generally known as no-duty rules.

One exception provides that, absent a "special relationship," there's no duty to affirmatively render aid to another. If you're walking along a beach and see someone drowning in the lake, you're free to point and laugh as far as the common law is concerned. A related but distinct no-duty rule provides that there's no obligation to control another person's conduct or to protect another from a third-person's criminal acts. That's the no-duty rule that ultimately killed the plaintiffs' claims in this case.

Yes, courts definitely consider feasibility and cost in deciding whether to impose a duty in a particular case. The judge in this case did that when he ruled that exposing MySpace to negligence liability in cases like this "would of course stop MySpace's business in its tracks and close this avenue of communication . . . ."

Personally, I'm all the way down with the judge's reasoning. Shutting down MySpace means no more comedic gold such as this, and that would be completely unacceptable.
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Old 03-18-2019, 10:05 PM
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Default Re: Holding MySpace to blame

"This thread is more than 4003 days old" puts this latest MySpace debacle into perspective. These are the top two questions on Google's MySpace search page:

Quote:
People also ask
Does MySpace still exist 2018?
Is MySpace still active?
But that notwithstanding, music I had composed and uploaded to MySpace over a decade ago has not been accessible for some time, well over a year, maybe two? After a couple of catastrophic hard drive failures, the only place these songs still existed were on my MySpace page. So, being MY SONGS, I attempted to download them back. My playlists are still visible, but when I tried to play them back or download them, nothing. Not even crickets. All emails and attempts to speak to a human being at MySpace to find out why was to no avail.

So not much of a surprise to hear this...MySpace loses a dozen years worth of music uploads and photos from users, calls it an 'inconvenience'

Guess that's what I get for not embracing SoundCloud a lot sooner. I would not be "inconvenienced," eh? But MySpace are still a bunch of total :asshat: :asshat: :asshat:
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