LEGAL

LEGAL

Indictment in Internet Suicide

A federal grand jury indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in a MySpace hoax against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide. Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, who did not exist. Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl. Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan. U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case.

Red Cross Prevails in Lawsuit

A federal judge has tossed out most of a lawsuit in which the health-products maker Johnson & Johnson claimed that the American Red Cross was breaking the law by licensing its famous red and white symbol to other companies.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, made public, is the latest blow to Johnson & Johnson in a bitter trademark battle launched in August over the use of the red cross logo, which the two entities have shared for more than a century.

Originally, the trademark infringement suit demanded that the Red Cross stop using its emblem on health care products sold to the public.

A good chunk of the lawsuit was dismissed in November, but Johnson & Johnson persisted with a claim that the Red Cross, in licensing its logo to third parties, broke a federal law making it a crime for anyone to use the insignia "for the fraudulent purpose of inducing the belief that he is a member of or an agent for the American National Red Cross."

TAXES

IRS Errors Affect Thousands

Up to 350,000 households are not getting the $300 per child owed them as part of their economic stimulus rebate payments, the Internal Revenue Service said.

Human error by taxpayers and computer glitches were responsible for the problem affecting a tiny percentage of the 130 million taxpayers expected to benefit from the refunds the government began sending out last month, the IRS said.

Spokesman Terry Lemons said the agency was confident it had identified all the people affected by the mistake. He said the IRS will send letters to those who missed out on the refund and that checks for the child credit will be mailed out in July.

People need not contact the IRS or file additional paperwork, he said.