Sounds like they were trying to create the online equivalent of "disorderly conduct." That is, "we don't have any other crime to charge you with but we really, really don't like you, so have this generic charge instead."
It's scarier than that; they were claiming that a TOS violation was enough to charge you under CFAA (unauthorized access, or exceeding authorized access). If that were true, being rude on a message board (that banned such behavior in its TOS) would be a criminal offense. It would be possible to charge almost any person with a crime for "hacking".
She was charged under 18 U.S.C. 1030a2C; it prohibits exceeding authorized access to a computer to get information. One pertinent question is whether violating TOS, a contract between yourself and a corporation, constitutes unauthorized access. If it does, then it's a crime through CFAA. This is troublesome because few people read (or are capable of fully understanding) most TOS and because they frequently include "we can change this whenever we like".
She wasn't charged for harassing the girl though a philosophical sense of justice demands that that was the crime committed. When activity falls into "a non-existing law area", it's not a crime. It may be later deemed a crime, but in America, you can't apply it retroactively.
This might land me in jail, but I found this part of the amicus curiae brief darkly amusing:
In another example, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that terms of
service for the popular dating site Match.com require users of either the website or
the dating service to be single or separated from their spouses. See, e.g., Match.com
Terms of Use Agreement, http://www.match.com/registration/membagr.aspx (âoeYou
must be at least eighteen (18) years of age and single or separated from your spouse
to register as a member of Match.com or use the Website.â) (last visited July 30,
2008). The brief's author has not been able to visit the site to confirm the report;
because she remains happily married, doing so would be a violation of the siteâ(TM)s
terms, potentially a criminal act under the interpretation of the CFAA advanced by
the Government here.
they offer you a lot of possibilities but the learning curve (and universe) is ruthless. this way the community is pretty mature and dedicated.
A steep learning curve is one of the things that inevitably leads to an MMO's end. Eventually the cost (either in time or frustration) of a new player entering the game rises too high, the population peaks, and attrition takes care of the remaining players over time.
They don't want a government-controlled override. They want a weapon that can stop a plane on the ground or halt a ship at sea without killing the people on board. The Pentagon is not interested in messing with your domestic flight, it wants to shut down enemy aircraft (which won't install USA-approved government-controlled hardware). This is a defense research project. They're intended to start with a fantastic, impossible idea, hand it over to eggheads for a decade and see where it ends up.
They're not looking to install a remote-control "off" switch in your plane/boat/car. This is a proposal to develop a weapon that can stop a vehicle, rather than setting it ablaze with a missile.
One of the best ways to cut down on NullPointerExceptions is to declare everything final unless it absolutely doesn't need to be so. Otherwise, you may want to look at the FindBugs tool (free) which does a bit more checking than Eclipse (though not by much).
Entertaining enough to justify a purchase. I'd been putting off getting HDMI cables for my projector for a while anyhow.
http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/
Confiscating everything that can store anything is a good start.
It's also important to train forensics examiners on how to effectively testify on their findings. Striking a balance between language plain enough for a jury and precise enough to CYA from the defense is not an easy task.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like they were trying to create the online equivalent of "disorderly conduct." That is, "we don't have any other crime to charge you with but we really, really don't like you, so have this generic charge instead."
It's scarier than that; they were claiming that a TOS violation was enough to charge you under CFAA (unauthorized access, or exceeding authorized access). If that were true, being rude on a message board (that banned such behavior in its TOS) would be a criminal offense. It would be possible to charge almost any person with a crime for "hacking".
I prefer using the preexisting terminology for Twitter users, "twit".
She was charged under 18 U.S.C. 1030a2C; it prohibits exceeding authorized access to a computer to get information. One pertinent question is whether violating TOS, a contract between yourself and a corporation, constitutes unauthorized access. If it does, then it's a crime through CFAA. This is troublesome because few people read (or are capable of fully understanding) most TOS and because they frequently include "we can change this whenever we like". She wasn't charged for harassing the girl though a philosophical sense of justice demands that that was the crime committed. When activity falls into "a non-existing law area", it's not a crime. It may be later deemed a crime, but in America, you can't apply it retroactively.
In another example, the Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that terms of service for the popular dating site Match.com require users of either the website or the dating service to be single or separated from their spouses. See, e.g., Match.com Terms of Use Agreement, http://www.match.com/registration/membagr.aspx (âoeYou must be at least eighteen (18) years of age and single or separated from your spouse to register as a member of Match.com or use the Website.â) (last visited July 30, 2008). The brief's author has not been able to visit the site to confirm the report; because she remains happily married, doing so would be a violation of the siteâ(TM)s terms, potentially a criminal act under the interpretation of the CFAA advanced by the Government here.
A -> Analyst
they offer you a lot of possibilities but the learning curve (and universe) is ruthless. this way the community is pretty mature and dedicated.
A steep learning curve is one of the things that inevitably leads to an MMO's end. Eventually the cost (either in time or frustration) of a new player entering the game rises too high, the population peaks, and attrition takes care of the remaining players over time.
They don't want a government-controlled override. They want a weapon that can stop a plane on the ground or halt a ship at sea without killing the people on board. The Pentagon is not interested in messing with your domestic flight, it wants to shut down enemy aircraft (which won't install USA-approved government-controlled hardware). This is a defense research project. They're intended to start with a fantastic, impossible idea, hand it over to eggheads for a decade and see where it ends up.
They're not looking to install a remote-control "off" switch in your plane/boat/car. This is a proposal to develop a weapon that can stop a vehicle, rather than setting it ablaze with a missile.
One of the best ways to cut down on NullPointerExceptions is to declare everything final unless it absolutely doesn't need to be so. Otherwise, you may want to look at the FindBugs tool (free) which does a bit more checking than Eclipse (though not by much).
Entertaining enough to justify a purchase. I'd been putting off getting HDMI cables for my projector for a while anyhow. http://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/
In another few years, I might be able to run Eclipse.
We have that already.
You're not alone. So not alone, they're actually working on making the ties. http://www.thinkgeek.com/apparel/hats-ties/9352/?c pg=50T
The handy thing about natural selection is that eventually, everything will turn out alright. Just probably not in your lifetime.
Confiscating everything that can store anything is a good start. It's also important to train forensics examiners on how to effectively testify on their findings. Striking a balance between language plain enough for a jury and precise enough to CYA from the defense is not an easy task.