Unrepetant on Facebook could mean jail time
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/18/facebook.evidence.ap/index.html#
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird."
In the age of the Internet, it might not be hard to guess what happened to those pictures: Someone posted them on the social networking site Facebook. And that offered remarkable evidence for Jay Sullivan, the prosecutor handling Lipton's drunken-driving case.
Sullivan used the pictures to paint Lipton as an unrepentant partier who lived it up while his victim recovered in the hospital. A judge agreed, calling the pictures depraved when sentencing Lipton to two years in prison.
Online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace have offered crime-solving help to detectives and become a resource for employers vetting job applicants. Now the sites are proving fruitful for prosecutors, who have used damaging Internet photos of defendants to cast doubt on their character during sentencing hearings and argue for harsher punishment.
"Social networking sites are just another way that people say things or do things that come back and haunt them," said Phil Malone, director of the cyberlaw clinic at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "The things that people say online or leave online are pretty permanent."
I thought I got 'deleted' :-P
Just got to see some nice pics of a country I never been to...It's great...
You can't teach experience
uf.. good that I quit FB...
I'm sure it does! Everything is visible...I'm watching my P & Qs.
Becareful of what u wish for. May be this happens on Qatarliving too lol j/k.
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"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" - George Galloway.
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we all act foolish online sometimes! I keep my profile hidden from my students, but once they graduate I often become FB friends. It's not always bad stuff they post, sometimes they are sooooo sweet online. But they forget that there's a copy forever once they submit it. Late night, after-the-pub posts are the funniest - big burly students suddeny reveal their sensitive side!
:)
JaneyJaney, we can now console ourselves-those of us who live by FB...;-)
Apple, very true.
Becca_Bee haha, have you really?!! I thank God this was unheard of in my high school days, I would've been in the dog house ALL the time, LOL. Ah to be young and daft. But not as bad as this guy in the article...
Wow, what a fool - and what an irresponsible man. I must admit I've used FB to cross-check students stories and found some huge lies. You'd be amazed what they put up there.
"Social networking sites are just another way that people say things or do things that come back and haunt them," said Phil Malone, director of the cyberlaw clinic at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "The things that people say online or leave online are pretty permanent."
-->Cyberlaw may not be strong enough here, but... expect the unexpected. And better be cautious in every single word you type and post coz you are responsible for that.
See, Facebook helps!
Doux et bas