4 ms·

"...sharing your Facebook password is illegal." Illegal is the wrong word for it. It's not illegal, it's a violation of the Facebook TOS - a matter for at most

• kijin 15y ago
  There was a thread here on HN some time ago, where someone argued that it's illegal anyway, because of some misguided law that makes it a federal crime to violate an internet company's TOS. I can't find that thread right now, though.
  • skymt 15y ago
    That would be the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act[0,1]. The relevant bit is "Whoever ... intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains ... information from any protected computer ... shall be punished as provided in subsection (c) of this section." A "protected computer", by the way, is any computer "which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication." That's not relevant, though, because US v. Lori Drew[2] decided that a user can't be prosecuted under the CFAA for breaking a ToS agreement. (BTW, IANAL.) 0: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act 2: https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/IST432TEAM24/United+States+v.+Lori+Drew https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/IST432TEAM24/United+State...
    • rhizome 15y ago
      Which the prosecution used against Lori Drew, and ultimately failed. The hysteria about it being illegal to violate TOS was a feature of the original verdict against her, which was set aside on acquittal. It's a (now) non-story.