Don't Blog

Back in 2003 I wrote this fictitious news story, trying to imagine the role of a weblog in an ongoing crime:

Outlaw Blogs Kidnapping of Baby Jane Doe. The blogger known as Adam Adam Adam continutes to post pictures of a scared little girl. A3 posts via mobile phone, Internet cafe, public library, and the occasional dial-up while evading a national dragnet. FBI asks Attorney General to lock down the blogosphere. Senator Grubb filibusters.

Now we have a case of a daughter allegedly conspiring with her mother's alleged killer.

In Deadly Blogging, Elliott Back documents how Rachelle Ann Monica Waterman poured her heart out in her smchyrocky LiveJournal. And reported her mother's death. And the police seizing her computer. And her arrest.

1. As the blogosphere grows past the 10 million mark, it starts to look a lot like a big city. In any big population, there will be all manner of human behavior. Including murder.
   
2. Her weblog will be used to convict her, just like a paper diary. If not in arraignment, or in court, then in the media.
   
3. Since this diary is in public, will it affect the jury pool? Will the comments?
   
4. Will commenting in her diary put you on the suspect list?
   
5. If you were on her buddy/friends list, were you contacted by the police?
   
6. If you left a comment encouraging this unbalanced 16 year old to act out, how much are you legally culpable?
   
7. Imagine a crazy person reads your whining, and does a violent favor for you without asking.