4 ms·
IANAL but IIRC if a person accesses a computer in violation of a terms of use agreement, then the government can prosecute them for unauthorized access under CF
by lowbloodsugar 10y ago
IANAL but IIRC if a person accesses a computer in violation of a terms of use agreement, then the government can prosecute them for unauthorized access under CFAA. The government. Not OkCupid. Prosecute, not sue. OkCupid has a statement in its terms of use that this is for personal use only. Accessing it for the purpose of sharing data as an academic study seems to violate those terms of use, which would mean access was illegal under CFAA.
- drdaeman 10y agoFound this on Wikipedia[1]: > United States v. Lori Drew, 2008. The cyberbullying case involving the suicide of a girl harassed on myspace. Charges were under 18 USC 1030(a)(2)(c) and (b)(2)(c). Judge Wu decided that using 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C) against someone violating a terms of service agreement would make the law overly broad. 259 F.R.D. 449 I think it was a wise decision. This particular case aside, government's ability to prosecute over ToS violations opens up an enormous way for possible abuse (think of visiting a site whose ToS forbid ad-blocking with one active). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act#cite_ref-8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act#c...