'Aaron's law' would update Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, criticised for vague wording under which activist was charged

A congresswoman from Silicon Valley is planning to introduce legislation to amend the law used to prosecute Aaron Swartz, the free information activist who killed himself on Friday.

Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat who represents California's 19th district, launched "Aaron's law", her draft bill to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, on Reddit on Tuesday night.

Swartz, a co-founder of Reddit, was charged with wire fraud, computer fraud and other crimes for allegedly accessing and downloading academic documents from the JSTOR online database through the network of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The prosecution against him has been criticised as over-zealous and disproportionate and his family have accused MIT and prosecutors of being complicit in his death. If found guilty, he faced up to 35 years in jail, and although lawyers said plea bargain negotiations were underway before his death, his request for a solution which did not involve a prison term was denied.

In a post on Reddit, Lofgren wrote that she was "deeply troubled" that the government were able to bring such charges against Aaron.

She said: "His family's statement about this speaks volumes about the inappropriate efforts undertaken by the US government. There's no way to reverse the tragedy of Aaron's death, but we can work to prevent a repeat of the abuses of power he experienced. We should prevent what happened to Aaron from happening to other Internet users."

She continued: "The government was able to bring such disproportionate charges against Aaron because of the broad scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the wire fraud statute. It looks like the government used the vague wording of those laws to claim that violating an online service's user agreement or terms of service is a violation of the CFAA and the wire fraud statute.

"Using the law in this way could criminalize many everyday activities and allow for outlandishly severe penalties."

It invited "dangerous legal interpretation", she said, which Congress had a responsibility to change.

Her amendment excludes access in violation of an agreement, such as an acceptable use policy or terms of service agreement, with an Internet service provider, in cases where such a violation is the sole reason for determining that access to a computer is unauthorised.

Lawrence Lessig, a friend of Swartz and Harvard law professor, gave the amendment his blessing. He wrote: "This is a CRITICALLY important change that would do incredible good.

"The CFAA was the hook for the government's bullying of [Aaron]. This law would remove that hook. In a single line: no longer would it be a felony to breach a contract. Let's get this done for Aaron – now."

Marcia Hofmann, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, welcomed the bill but said that, as it stood, it would not have prevented Aaron's prosecution.

In a tweet, she saidL "Kudos to Rep Lofgren for her swift response. But her bill wouldn't have prevented Aaron's prosecution under the CFAA or wire fraud law." In another message, she said the bill needed strengthening before it went before Congress.

The Justice Department's prosecution of Swartz, which has been widely criticised since his death, is to be investigated by the House Oversight Committee.

Darrell Issa, Republican representative for California, praised Swartz's work on open government and free access to information. He told the Huffington Post he thought the government's case against Swartz is problematic enough to merit investigation.

"I'm not condoning his hacking, but he's certainly someone who worked very hard," Issa said, of Swartz. "Had he been a journalist and taken that same material that he gained from MIT, he would have been praised for it. It would have been like the Pentagon Papers."

Issa said he didn't have enough information to say whether the US Attorney's Office in Massachusetts over-prosecuted Swartz. He said he had asked an investigator to gather more facts.