, 2004-03-01
A judge's wrongheaded interpretation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act illustrates the problems of allowing civil enforcement of a criminal law.
Expand all |
Post comment
|
Is password-lending a cybercrime?
, 2004-03-01 A judge's wrongheaded interpretation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act illustrates the problems of allowing civil enforcement of a criminal law.
Expand all |
Post comment
|
|
|
Privacy Statement |
(a) The statute says that someone can be cited if s/he: "...intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization," -- Bershire did this--they intentionally accessed IMS' database without IMS' authorization.
(b) The statute also says:"...and as a result of such conduct, causes damages" and defines "damage" as "any impairment to the integrity ... of data or information" and allows a civil lawsuit to be filed by "[a]ny person who suffers damage or loss by reason of a violation." -- Bershire did this--they stole intellectual property that gave IMS a competitve advantage. If you disagree, ask Coca-Cola if they would consider their Intellectual Property assets to be damaged if PepsiCo stole the secret recipe--the same goes for KFC.
This is not the same as permitting someone to use your userid/password to access the online New York Times. While borrowing someone's userid/pswd to access the online Times mirrors cable theft (which is also a crime in most jurisdictions as well as actionable in civil court as a tort of conversion), the value of the online news is not damaged or greatly devalued. Now, if the Washington Post were to access the online New York Times and then use it, a good case could be make that the Times was, in fact, harmed and that the 'value' of their online news was damaged. -- Much in the same way as the value of IMS' intellectual property was damaged.
[ reply ]
Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/222/25273#25273