The story is in two parts, The Lawyers Hackers Call and ‘Find the Best Defense Attorney You Can’, and it includes quotes from me and several others. I had related thoughts in 2011 here.
Archive | Computer Crime Law
Washington Post on United States v. Auernheimer
Last month, I blogged about why I agreed to represent Andrew Auernheimer pro bono in his appeal before the Third Circuit. Tomorrow’s Washington Post has a front-page story by Jerry Markon focusing on the case. It begins: Their guns drawn, a dozen federal agents, police and forensics experts kicked in the door of a run-down […]
En Banc Ninth Circuit Holds That Computer Forensic Searches Are Like “Virtual Strip Searches” And Require Reasonable Suspicion At the Border
Today the Ninth Circuit handed down its long-awaited en banc decision in United States v. Cotterman, a case on the lawfulness of searching a computer at the border. (My prior posts are here, here, here, and here.) Today the Ninth Circuit announced a special rule for computer searches: Although a “review of computer files” can […]
The Prospects for Reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Will Congress amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in light of the Aaron Swartz case? Don’t expect reforms any time soon, Politico suggests: Despite some recent momentum, there’s not much clamor for change coming from the White House — and as expected, the Justice Department, which once tried to expand the penalties of the […]
“Tom the Dancing Bug” on the Scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — And A Related Note from My Computer Crime Casebook
I have been beating the drum on the need to narrow the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for a decade or so, so I was happy to see today’s cartoon for “Tom the Dancing Bug” pick up the cause, too. I don’t know if I can reprint the cartoon here copyright reasons, but you can […]
What About the Insiders? A Second Proposal To Change the Computer Crime Statutes
In a recent post, I suggested a way to narrow the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. 1030. In narrowing that law, I intentionally excluded the problem of “insiders” who might misuse computers. There are really two situations to worry about. First, there’s the Aleynikov problem: an employee at a company who is thinking […]
Proposed Amendments to 18 U.S.C. 1030
By Orin Kerr on January 20, 2013 1:10 pm in Computer Crime Law, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Uncategorized
There has been a lot of interest in amending the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in light of the Aaron Swartz prosecution. I have drafted some changes and uploaded a red-lined version here. My proposal has lots of parts, but the big ones are: (1) eliminating liability for exceeding authorized access, (2) tightening the felony […]
Boyle on Kerr on Swartz, and Cornyn on Holder on Swartz
Two quick links related to the Aaron Swartz prosecution: 1) Duke lawprof Jamie Boyle has posted a thoughtful reply to my two posts on the Aaron Swartz case over at The Public Domain. I plan to post a response to Jamie when I have time to do so — in a day or two, I […]
The Criminal Charges Against Aaron Swartz (Part 2: Prosecutorial Discretion)
This is the second in a series of posts on the Aaron Swartz prosecution. In my first post, I analyzed whether the charges that were brought against Swartz were justified as a matter of law. In this post, I consider whether the prosecutors in the case properly exercised their discretion. As some readers may know, […]
The Criminal Charges Against Aaron Swartz (Part 1: The Law)
The Internet activist Aaron Swartz has died from an apparent suicide. Swartz was facing a criminal trial in April on charges arising from his effort to “liberate” the JSTOR database, and there has been a lot of commentary accusing the prosecutors in his case of having abused their role in ways that contributed to Swartz’s […]
Magistrate Judge Concludes That Fraud Scheme Using Video Poker Machine Falls Outside the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Last year, I posted about a recently-filed criminal prosecution in which the federal government was charging a state fraud scheme involving poker machines under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Andrew Nestor learned of a programming flaw in certain video poker machines used in Las Vegas. By using a certain feature and playing a particular […]
The Hacker Protection Act of 2012
The latest draft cybersecurity bill contains information sharing provisions that were heavily negotiated between the Obama administration and privacy groups. This effort at compromise has yielded the usual ambiguous praise from privacy groups. The Electronic Frontier Foundation pronounced itself “pleased” but then complained that the measure still “contains broad language around the ability for companies […]
Testifying on Cybersecurity Legislation
The Senate’s big cybersecurity bill has finally surfaced officially, and the hearing will be tomorrow at 2:30 DC time in front of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. After Sen. Rockefeller and Sec. Napolitano, I’ll be part of a panel that includes Gov. Tom Ridge, Scott Charney of Microsoft, and Jim Lewis of the […]
Thoughts on the Oral Arguments in United States v. Nosal
I’ve blogged a lot about the Ninth Circuit’s en banc case in United States v. Nosal, on the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — and more specifically, on whether it’s a federal crime to violate an express written restriction on using a computer. You can watch last Thursday’s oral argument in the […]
Air France 447 and the Future of Socially Engineered Cyberwar
I recently read Popular Mechanics’ riveting article reconstructing the last minutes Air France 447, which in 2009 disappeared without explanation over the Atlantic between Rio and Paris. Using the cockpit transcript, the article reveals that the pilots essentially flew a fully functioning passenger jet into the sea. Why? It appears that a temporary loss of […]