Interesting People mailing list archives
more on Hard time? Not for cyber criminals
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:33:42 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: merlyn () stonehenge com (Randal L. Schwartz) Date: August 18, 2004 4:15:02 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: ip () v2 listbox com Subject: Re: [IP] more on Hard time? Not for cyber criminals
"Dave" == Dave Farber <dave () farber net> writes:
Dave> p. 224 Texas Computer Crimes Act, which is not substantially different Dave> from that of any other state, . by [these laws] looking at someone.s
Dave> digital watch without permission could be a felony. Dave> ------------------------------------------ When I give my "Just another convicted Perl hacker" talk, I point out that under Oregon's ORS 164.377, the law under which I was made a felon, unauthorized access to a computer is a misdemeanor, and unauthorized alteration is a felony. But then I go on to point out that "computer" is pretty much everything with a CPU (which is nearly everything these days), and "unauthorized" is never qualified. Which means that in Oregon (like many states), if you ring my cell phone (which is a computer, and you're now altering it: draining the battery, using up my prepaid minutes, adding to the "recent calls" log), and you're not "authorized" (whatever that means, since it could mean so many things), you're a felon. Think that's a joke? During one of our pre-trial motions, the judge said (now part of caselaw) that "altering the background screen on an employer's computer" would qualify under this law. Yes, set your preferences wrong (or at all), and you're going to jail! The laws that have been passed are not correlated with reality. They come from a fantasy world where computers were in big ivory towers, and even then, they didn't make sense. They also speak of "authorization", but that could mean so many things. Do I have explicit authorization to call your cell phone? If you publish it? If I've been annoying you recently? If I don't have permission, where do you need to publish that fact as sufficient warning? It's just crazy. All crazy. And I'm a felon because of a misunderstanding exactly along these lines, and it's cost me dearly. (By the way, I will give this 90-minute talk wherever invited, as long as you can help me cover my costs. I promise an educational as well as entertaining experience.) --Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<merlyn () stonehenge com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/> Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!
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Current thread:
- more on Hard time? Not for cyber criminals David Farber (Aug 17)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- more on Hard time? Not for cyber criminals Dave Farber (Aug 17)
- more on Hard time? Not for cyber criminals Dave Farber (Aug 18)
- more on Hard time? Not for cyber criminals David Farber (Aug 18)
- more on Hard time? Not for cyber criminals David Farber (Aug 18)