Shortly after the suicide of Internet entrepreneur and activist Aaron Swartz, Silicon Valley lawmaker Zoe Lofgren proposed "Aaron's Law." The bill aims to reform the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the law under which Swartz was prosecuted for mass-downloading academic documents from MIT's network. Swartz's family has blamed the government prosecution for contributing to his death.

Lofgren submitted a draft of the bill to be reviewed on reddit. After its online critique, a revised version of the bill was published today, with more far-reaching reforms.

The CFAA forbids "unauthorized access" to computer networks, and the older version of Lofgren's reform bill would have simply changed the wording of the law so that nobody could be prosecuted under CFAA if all they had done is violate terms of service.

But CFAA prosecutions, including the one against Aaron Swartz, often involve something more serious than mere TOS violations.

The new version defines unauthorized access as "the circumvention of technological access barriers," which leaves a much narrower scope for prosecution. It also specifies that changing one's MAC or IP address does not violate CFAA or the wire fraud statute. It's pretty clear that Swartz, who was authorized to be on the MIT network, wouldn't be prosecutable under the new law.

Other recent CFAA prosecutions, like the one against Internet troll "weev," might not have been possible under the revised law, either. Weev arguably didn't "circumvent one or more technological measures that exclude or prevent unauthorized individuals from obtaining or altering that information," which is what is required under the language of the revised bill [PDF].

The bill could be introduced as early as next week, when the House is back in session. As Lofgren explained in a reddit discussion, though, it's a long process. First she'll have to urge her colleagues to become "original cosponsors" of the bill and then encourage the Judiciary Committee Chairperson (Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia) to bring the bill up for a hearing or a vote. "Sustain[ing] public support throughout that process is important for the bill to continue advancing," wrote Lofgren.