is bad - that allows federal prosecutors harassment Aaron Swartz. But the system of copyright in the United States is a greater threat

Is Fraud and Abuse Act "the worst right technology", as the Columbia Law School Tim Wu calls the law? I think there are worse laws for the technology industry and its customers, but the CFAA is more than enough bad - a vague law, outdated and draconian abused by the government in several high-profile cases -. After driving the repeal calls

As Wu and many (including myself) have pointed out over the years, the vagueness of the CAFA gave prosecutors a tool that should concern everyone. This is because the government maintains that the prohibition of the law on "unauthorized access" to someone else's computer is a crime, period, with possible sanctions to be associated with serious crimes.

The late Aaron Swartz has been the target of more high-profile federal prosecutors far too heavily dependent of CAFA, if you have downloaded hundreds of thousands of articles, an organization that wanted the process and finally decided to make the material available for free. There is no doubt that his suicide was fueled in part by the growing threat of the government, was made possible by the ability of prosecutors to use the CFAA as a hammer.

But it was not the first. The Bush administration was based on the CFAA to prosecute Lori Drew easy to hate, who was among several people who have created a fake MySpace account of a boy fiction girl who courted and rejected the neighbor's daughter in the suburbs of St. Louis Drew. The girl committed suicide. When Missouri prosecutors said they had no law of the State concerned must pursue Drew and his assistants certainly no heart in this scheme, a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Drew dragged there to answer charges under CAFA.

The case fell to Drew inaccuracies in your MySpace profile. (This is annoying, MySpace sustained the charge.) Drew The jury convicted on a charge, but the trial judge wisely turned, and said that the government has done all that has never violated a "terms of service" agreement, regardless of the severity of the violation, the risk of criminal prosecution.

The threat of this law is not only to government persecution. It is widely used in civil cases, too. Wu said that the way to resolve this situation is intolerable convince President Obama to solve this problem:

"Fraud and Abuse Act is noticeably wider-of a way that clearly on the rights and freedoms of Americans. In one speech, the President may fix things. "

But no, you can not. At least not in a way that I could trust.

first presidential waiver is useful, but not permanent distance. Occupants of the White House change. More authoritarian executive Obama is not bound by what he does.

could be -. And if the law is unacceptable because it is

doubt Wu, reasonably, that the Congress, in particular, can be persuaded to act in almost anything. And it is no exaggeration to say that legislators are terrified generally do anything that might cause them to be accused of being soft on crime. But like it or not, this is ultimately a problem for Congress, who writes the laws.

tendency of legislators for the inaccuracy has some merit - it gives people who carry out the execution and regulations provide the ability to adapt to new circumstances - but in cases like one, where the abuse of executive power is clear, Congress should take the risk of doing your job.
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