Knowing that they would probably open themselves up to spurious lawsuits, MySpace (NWS-A) refused to turn over information on about 5,000 convicted sex offenders who had profiles on the social networking site, citing that it was against the law.
In response to the concern, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal got and served the company with a subpoena to deliver the names and addresses to him. The company complied immediately.
"I am pleased that MySpace has heeded our demand, now by subpoena, to provide information about convicted sex offenders and confirm steps to remove them from 
the site," Blumenthal said in a statement. "Our subpoena compels this information right away--within hours, not weeks, without delay."
MySpace Executive Vice President and General Counsel Michael Angus said there was never a resistance to the concerns or of turning over the information, they simply wanted to do it according to law.
Angus added, "For each state it is different, but in some cases we would need a subpoena in order to get this information to them. It has to go through the proper legal processes, and we've worked with the attorneys general to help them determine the right language to make the request."
I for one am glad this is going forward. To allow these types of predators on the site with access to young people needed to be taken care of. Hopefully it will help to protect the children and provide safeguards against these vicious people.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper added that the information could be used to search for violation of parole and to aid investigations.
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