Rape Culture Hysteria: Fixing the Damage Done to Men and Women

Saturday 29 November 2008 Use a Website, Go To Jail Share This:





The problem is, as vile and abhorrent as her actions were, she broke no laws. So the prosecutor, desperate to nail her for something, charged her under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a law which criminalized "cracking" and unauthorized access to computers.



The argument seems to be that Drew violated the Terms of Service of her MySpace account, therefore her use of the account was not authorized, therefore she was guilty of unauthorized access -- a criminal offense.



Stop and think about that: violation of a contractual agreement is now a criminal offense, not civil. Even if it's an "implicit" agreement hidden behind a "Legal Notices" link on the bottom of the page. And worse, it's an offense if the service provider decides, unilaterally, that you have violated its terms. And of course many of those agreements are subject to change without notice. As of now, you use any on-line service at your own risk.



As Groklaw's PJ put it,



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Printer Friendly Brad - Saturday 29 November 2008 - 21:26:28 - Permalink From Groklaw I learn of a horrid precedent in computer law which has just been set . You may have heard of the "MySpace Suicide" case, in which 49-year-old Lori Drew "arranged a cruel internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide."The problem is, as vile and abhorrent as her actions were, she broke no laws. So the prosecutor, desperate to nail her for something, charged her under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), a law which criminalized "cracking" and unauthorized access to computers.The argument seems to be that Drew violated the Terms of Service of her MySpace account, therefore her use of the account was not authorized, therefore she was guilty of unauthorized access -- a criminal offense.Stop and think about that: violation of a contractual agreement is now a criminal offense, not civil. Even if it's an "implicit" agreement hidden behind a "Legal Notices" link on the bottom of the page. And worse, it's an offense if the service provider decides, unilaterally, that you have violated its terms. And of course many of those agreements are subject to change without notice.As Groklaw's PJ put it,