ToS Violations No Longer a Crime (On Their Own)

nonprofiteer writes "The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act previously made 'unauthorized access to a computer system' a crime — meant to apply to hackers, it also criminalized violations of a website's ToS or of a workplace's computer policies. The law is being changed to make the crime a felony rather than a misdemeanor, which led some to worry about the potential for its abuse. However, Senators Franken and Grassley added an amendment (PDF) to exempt violations of ToS and employer policies from the lists of felony activity. w00t for common sense."

Comments

Re:Still crimes, even on their own

[maxume]

Here's the text of the current law:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html

(go yell at Cornell if you think it is not an accurate reflection of the current U.S. code, I don't care)

Section 1030(e)(6) defines the term âoeexceeds authorized accessâ as used in the law. The amendment to the proposed bill changes the definition explicitly to exclude TOS violations as a sole basis for determining unauthorized access.