The Cat Signal

The banner from the Internet Defense League is at the top of the page, and will be there today and tomorrow.

The Fix The CFAA site gives you some of the background of what has become a ‘bait and switch’ by Congresscritters. Instead of trying to fix the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as they said they wanted to, the House Republicans are making it worse at the behest of their corporate owners.

I was in law enforcement for ten years and this law can be used to prosecute anyone for anything related to a computer or cell phone. Cell phones got included when a court decided that they met all of the basic requirements of being a computer. To date no decision has been made concerning universal remote controls, but I can see a US Attorney trying if it would impress voters or the media.

The problem with prosecutors in general is that they are political. They are using their office as a stepping stone to a higher office, and will overreach if they see a political advantage in doing it. The War on Terror™ has generated a lot of bad cases that have nothing to do with actual threats against the US and too much to do with free media for prosecutors running for office or looking for a judicial appointment. The CFAA is so vague that it is easy for a prosecutor to abuse it and create a Federal felony case out of a state-level theft of services misdemeanor, which is what happened to Aaron Schwartz.

This is a bad law originally written before the Internet that was made even worse by changes after 9/11. There have been no changes to it to reflect the current reality of computer use and common practices.