Crippen was indicted by a federal grand jury on two counts of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Edward Richardson, 41, of Mayfield Road, Biddulph, was found guilty of stabbing Sarah Richardson to death.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/7845946.stm

Below is an excerpt from the article..

The defendant, Lori Drew, 49, of O’Fallon, Mo., was convicted Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles on misdemeanor charges of accessing computers without authorization. Her lawyer later said he hoped a judge would dismiss the charges against her.

Tina Meier, the mother of Megan Meier, the girl who committed suicide, said she would ask that Ms. Drew be held to the maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $300,000 fine.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – A man accused of making unflattering online comments about his former lover and her attorney on Craigslist has been charged with two counts of criminal libel.

“It’s not a charge you see a lot of,” Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson said of the 1800s-era state law that can put people in jail for the content of their speech or writing.

Abrahamson charged J.P. Weichel, 40, of Loveland, in October over posts he allegedly made on Craigslist’s “Rants and Rave” section.

The case began when a woman told Loveland police in December 2007 about postings made about her between November and December 2007. Court records show posts that suggested she traded sexual acts for legal services from her attorney and mentioned a visit from child services because of an injury to her child.

Police obtained search warrants for records from Web sites including Craigslist before identifying Weichel as the suspect. Weichel shares a child with the woman.

Weichel, confronted by detectives at his workplace in August, said he was “just venting,” according to court records.

No phone listing could be found for Weichel, and his attorney, Michael Liggett of Fort Collins, didn’t immediately return a message left Monday by The Associated Press.

Libel is commonly seen as a civil case. Denver attorney Steve Zansberg, who specializes in First Amendment law, said prosecutors seeking criminal libel cases could have a “chilling” effect on free speech in Colorado, particularly over the Internet.

Abrahamson wasn’t so sure. He said it is up to police departments to pursue cases.

Zansberg contends the law is outdated, is unclear about stating opinions and is written in such a way that dead people could be victims of criminal libel.

The statute allows prosecution for speech “tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead” or to “expose the natural defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule.” Criminal libel carries a punishment of up to 18 months in prison.

 “After a few weeks of chatting, “Josh Evans” began to send Megan nasty messages, via the MySpace account, ending with one that suggested “the world would be a better place” without her. Megan, believing she had been rejected by “Josh,” committed suicide in her home. “

 I’m interested to see how this will end up.

“Under the new law, convicted sex offenders will have to let the State Parole Board know about their access to computers; submit to periodic, unannounced examinations of their computer equipment; and install equipment on their computer so its use can be monitored.

The State Parole Board currently supervises about 4,200 paroled sex offenders whose sentencing guidelines call for lifetime supervision — regardless of whether their original crime involved the Internet.”