Just playing devils advocate here. You seem to have focused on this story quite a bit. Yes I'm focusing on Magnotta because that's the title of the thread. Have you found anything about his childhood? Was he abused? Since this is a new story, there isn't a lot of info on his history and that will likely come out in the trial. Sorry but I don't think there's any justification, such as child abuse etc that would warrant his actions. This was clearly a premeditated act and he bragged about wanting to kill a human to a UK reporter. He also posted a video on youtude with a pic of him holding an ice pic, 2 weeks prior to this video. There are many victims of childhood horrors who wouldn't hurt a fly.
Who is to say he isn't mentally ill. There are many news stories detailing violent and often horrific crimes committed by returning combat vets from the Iraq and Afghanistan fighting. Murders, rapes, beatings, one vet repeatedly bashed his child against a wall. Are they evil? Or could it be PTSD? Usually a PSTD crime would be spontaneous not premeditated. He may very well try to blame this on mental illness and I only said this because I feel its an insult to the mentally ill to throw him in the same classification. I've never heard of such despicable acts and professionals may need to find a new word to describe this man. I read somewhere he may be bipolar but that's no excuse to do what he did.
I'm not really interested in hypothetical questions about someone putting gruesome photos of deceased family members on the net. I'd never see them. Nobody I know would ever see them. I saw this on 20/20 news show on TV about a man who takes gruesome accident photos and puts them online for people who like to see them. Just because you / your friends wouldn't look for them doesn't mean they're not out there. Don't the parents of this young lady have the right, not to have these pics of their daughter out there, for the entertainment of a select group of sickos??
I've been surfing the net for most of my life and I've never seen any sites like this. Leads me to believe one would have to do some serious searching to find them. One would have to want to see them. I'm not going to try it to find out but I don't think you could type "snuff films" or "rape films" in google and find them. I have Google and on the news links for this case the Bestgore was a link. This Magnotta video was a snuff film. I typed in "Suicide Helplines for -------- (country name)" and up came a video of man who broadcast his own hanging. I was searching for suicide helplines. Guess you're saying its fine to have this illegal content out there for the select few?
I believe that there are domain and server guidelines and regulations that are enforced when reported along with law enforcement agencies around the world looking for illegal website content.
So, no, the internet shouldn't be and isn't lawless. Moral values... whose moral values? Basic human values like no Necrophilia, killing a person, defiling a human being after death, dismembering a human, Cannibalism and rape