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Why would a terms-of-service violation be a crime, exactly? Since when is it the job of state attorneys to enforce ToS?
by formerly_proven 5y ago
Why would a terms-of-service violation be a crime, exactly? Since when is it the job of state attorneys to enforce ToS?
- cdot2 5y agoThat's what the article is about. Basically the federal hacking law defines computer crime as "exceeding your authorization" on a computer that didn't belong to you. Hence violating terms of service would be computer crime.
- jedimastert 5y agoEssentially, the Computer Fraud and Abuse act was being interprated waaaaaaaaaay too broadly, because it could be. Here's the discussion on the supreme court win https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27382752 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27382752
- gamblor956 5y agoUnder Van Buren, merely saying in the ToS that [X] part of website is restricted access would not be enough to make it a crime under the CFAA. In the Van Buren case, SCOTUS was very concerned with the potential for innocent actors to unwittingly run afoul of the CFAA. The website would likely have to take further steps to make the restrictions on access known to the user (such as a warning when trying to access [X], and probably also take actual steps to limit access to [X], such that one would only be able to access [X] deliberately knowing that they don't have authorized access to it.