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'Aaron's Law' Introduced To Curb Overzealous Prosecutions For Computer Crimes
SonicSpike writes: Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced bipartisan legislation today to better target serious criminals and curb overzealous prosecutions for non-malicious computer and Internet offenses.
The legislation, inspired by the late Internet innovator and activist Aaron Swartz, who faced up to 35 years in prison for an act of civil disobedience, would reform the quarter-century old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to better reflect computer and internet activities in the digital age. Numerous and recent instances of heavy-handed prosecutions for non-malicious computer crimes have raised serious questions as to how the law treats violations of terms of service, employer agreements and website notices.
"Aaron’s Law would change the definition of 'access without authorization' in the CFAA so it more directly applies to malicious hacks such as sending fraudulent emails, injecting malware, installing viruses or overwhelming a website with traffic."
The legislation, inspired by the late Internet innovator and activist Aaron Swartz, who faced up to 35 years in prison for an act of civil disobedience, would reform the quarter-century old Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to better reflect computer and internet activities in the digital age. Numerous and recent instances of heavy-handed prosecutions for non-malicious computer crimes have raised serious questions as to how the law treats violations of terms of service, employer agreements and website notices.
"Aaron’s Law would change the definition of 'access without authorization' in the CFAA so it more directly applies to malicious hacks such as sending fraudulent emails, injecting malware, installing viruses or overwhelming a website with traffic."
Period
Hacking is relatively benign compared to the damage a prosecutor with an agenda can do. The latest round of these travesties is now going on in Wisconsin http://www.wsj.com/articles/ri... , It seems we get these popping up about once a year lately and it's been accelerating.
"Access without authorization" is best defined as, well, access without authorization.
Intent is frequently considered in the prosecution of crime. And evidence of intent can and should dramatically change the sentencing.
If I come home and find a note that my lock is weak pasted to my fridge, and my home otherwise undisturbed that's one thing. (And the perpetrator should be caught and punished.)
But If I come home and find you busily listing all my stuff on craigslist, while you arrange it all at the door for people to come pick up... Even if a sale hasn't actually been completed and nothing is actually missing yet.
It's still something else entirely, and we both know it.
If you've followed US politics over the past few years, it's not surprising at all. Rand is the only Republican that groks IT at all. If he wasn't also in the Koch's pocket, he would be the perfect candidate. He's still far better than Hillary "what email server?" Clinton...why the Republicans won't actually nominate him I'll never understand. He would pull conservative Democrats to him, and is a positive force for both Libertarians and Progressive Republicans (in the vein of Eisenhower). He's spoken out against the NSA, against drones, He's an actual MD. He voted against extending the PATRIOT Act.
My main issue is he's too anti-government, and wants to cut into the Department of Education, and is way too "pro-life". But weighing these against his positives, we'll not find another candidate who scores better. Of course the Republicans will give the nomination to someone else; someone who is more in-line with the $$$ and is a war-mongering corporate shill instead. And when they do, Hillary will sweep this election...it's almost like the Republicans like loosing on purpose.
It is truly a travesty that a privileged asshole like Aaron who was handled with kiddy gloves all the way through gets this kind of credit, when there are numerous well documented cases of the actual overzealous persecution in the computer hacking world and beyond. People who were put into prison for decades, people who had the prosecuter lie and fake evidence, people who were unconstitutionally confined to solitary for months at a time.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
No, the plea bargaining is the result of the criminal justice system being run by a bunch of sociopaths
... and if you back up one more level, the reason for that is a system that rewards prosecutors for "number of convictions" rather than "number of convictions of people that are actually guilty".
The problem is also that the District Attorney is the one who chooses to charge someone with a crime or crimes. Grand Juries are no help - as has been noted many times before, they're entirely ineffective as a check on the DA. Also, the DA generally does not impose or choose the sentence - they merely recommend to the judge, who generally accepts that recommendation. So, the way it works is that the DA loads up the list of charges, then offers to drop most of them if you plead to one or two.
The core problem is one of perverse incentives, because we reward DAs and prosecutors not for seeing justice done, but for winning cases, regardless of whether an innocent or guilty person was locked away. They're incentivized to lock away lots of people, so they can seek higher office of some sort. At the same time, they're immunized from legal retribution for even some of the grossest, most deliberate legal misconduct, including stuff that goes far beyond any of this, like deliberately concealing evidence that an accused is innocent.