MySpace, Personal Responsibility, and Stupid People

We* here in the DogHouse are big fans of Personal Freedom. We also believe that freedom has a price, and that price is Responsibility. Right now in this country, there is a big debate about how the government is taking away our freedoms. Let me say, for the record, that the greatest threat to our freedom isn’t the government, but ourselves.

There are people in our society who surrender their freedom every single day. The greatest freedom, and the most power, that we have in our lives is the freedom to make decisions, choices for ourselves and our families. I define that as responsibility. Thousands, if not millions, surrender this most basic of freedoms every single day…willingly. No one forces it from them, no visit to GitMo is needed, no government agency is involved; people just gladly roll over and take it.

The most obvious symptom of this is watching people not taking responsibility for their own actions. I think it started with Automobile insurance companies telling us not to admit fault when we we’re involved in an accident (that’s mostly tongue-in-cheek… I actually believe that the problem goes back to the Dawn of Man), but this has permeated into almost all facets of our society, from world Leaders and Corporate exec’s at companies like Enron to the lowest public displays of ignorance and stupidity, shows like Jerry Springer and The Steve Wilkos Show (I include the hosts in that statement).

‘It’s not Me’, ‘It’s not my fault’, ‘It’s society’s problem’. Bullshit. The BigDog knows Bullshit, and I’m calling Bullshit right here and now.

The latest item to make me gag comes courtesy of TechDirt. Here’s the Quick & Dirty: 13 year-old girl on MySpace (yet another low public display of ignorance and stupidity) lies about her age, hooks up with an older guy who sexually assaults her. Girl blames MySpace (instead of herself for putting herself in that position), her mother blames MySpace (instead of herself for not exercising the right of Parental Responsibility, having not monitored her 13 year old’s activities in the first place), and guess what: the guy is blaming MySpace as well (instead of not taking the personal responsibility to not be a jack ass and abusing an obviously under-age girl)! WTF?!?

Here’s the article, courtesy of TechDirt:

MySpace Still Not Liable For Sexual Assault Between Two MySpace Users

from the in-case-you-missed-it-the-first-time dept

Two years ago, we pointed to one of the more ridiculous lawsuits attempting to shift the blame and responsibility for certain actions away from those who were responsible, to those who had the money. A 13-year-old girl went onto MySpace, lied about her age, and struck up a relationship with an older boy. Eventually, the two agreed to meet, and the girl says that the boy sexually assaulted her. So, obviously, the mother of the 13-year-old girl sued MySpace. It seemed like such a good strategy that the boy accused of rape also considered blaming MySpace. Of course, as you should know by now, section 230 of the CDA (and basic common sense) protects websites from the actions of their users. And, in fact, that’s exactly what the judge told the woman and her daughter in tossing out the case.

Rather than understanding the law (and basic responsibility), the mother of course appealed the decision, and even tried to come up with a novel argument for why this wasn’t about section 230 at all, by saying that the company was somehow negligent in “policing its premises.” Luckily (and not surprisingly) the judge isn’t buying it. Eric Goldman lets us know that the appeals court has again sided with MySpace in pointing out that there is no liability for MySpace. They also tried to pull in the recent (somewhat questionable) Roommates.com decision, which was in a different circuit and argued that Roommates.com lost safe harbors because it specifically requested illegal information (which probably wouldn’t even apply in this case). However, since appeals are only on the facts argued in the lower court and this was an entirely new argument, the court refused to consider it.

Either way, this still seems like a case where the girl and her mother are blaming the wrong party in trying to squeeze millions of dollars out of MySpace. The best summation of the situation probably comes from the transcript of the original trial court hearing, which the appeals court quoted:

THE COURT: I want to get this straight. You have a 13-year-old girl who lies, disobeys all of the instructions, later on disobeys the warning not to give personal information, obviously, [and] does not communicate with the parent. More important, the parent does not exercise the parental control over the minor. The minor gets sexually abused, and you want somebody else to pay for it? This is the lawsuit that you filed?

MR. ITKIN [Counsel for the Does]: Yes, your Honor.

WTF is right. There’s only one thing that stinks worse that Bullshit, and that’s Money-grubbing whores who are willing to sell their own freedom for a paycheck. That’s something that the Government could never, ever do to us…
…and some of us choose it willingly…
…every
…single
…day.

Shame.
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*’We’, in all article, means ‘me’. It’s just me here, folks. Don’t get too excited with your conspiracy theories and stuff like that.