Today, Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Sen. Ron Wyden introduced “ Aaron’s Law ,” a bill to amend the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, explaining the need for the bill in a Wired op-ed . The following quote can be attributed to Berin Szoka , President of TechFreedom :
CFAA reform is long overdue. Congress should focus the law on its original goal: punishing and deterring truly harmful hacking. That means narrowing the definition of “unauthorized access” to avoid criminalizing violations of a website’s terms of service, such as by lying about your age, or innovative attempts make software interoperable. Congress also needs to rationalize the penalties under the CFAA to ensure that they fit the crime— real crimes.
It’s a sad commentary on the legislative process that it took the suicide of a 26-year-old prodigy to stir Congress to fix a 26-year-old, poorly written law. It would be even sadder if CFAA reform dragged out because it became a partisan issue, or got mired in the larger debate about copyright. As with cell phone unlocking, whatever one thinks about copyright in general, we should all agree that the law shouldn’t criminalize activity that can be adequately addressed by contract and common law remedies.
What Aaron Swartz went through before his suicide shouldn’t ever happen again. Tying CFAA reform to this tragedy has rallied the netizen base that helped stop SOPA — but it may also make it harder to actually fix the CFAA. The reforms championed now in Aaron’s name will only pass if members of both parties can agree that Swartz was a clear victim of over-criminalization — regardless of the morality of what he did or whether he should have been charged under some other law.
Szoka is available for comment at media@techfreedom.org . He has been writing about the need for CFAA reform since 2009. In April, TechFreedom joined a broad coalition letter opposing any increase in CFAA penalties unless Congress narrows the CFAA to cover truly harmful attacks. TechFreedom has also called for decriminalizing cell phone unlocking.