"Computer Expertise is Not a Crime": Judge Orders Return of Boston College CS Student's Laptop and Phone

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <joehall () gmail com>
Date: May 23, 2009 6:08:02 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: "Computer Expertise is Not a Crime": Judge Orders Return of  
Boston  College CS Student's Laptop and Phone

Looks like he had to finish his last semester as a CS student without
his laptop or phone... best, Joe

----

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/05/22

Judge Rules Dorm Room Search for Evidence of Prank Email Illegal
Student's Computers Were Seized Under Baseless Theory of Computer  
Hacking

May 22nd, 2009

Boston - A justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has
ordered police to return a laptop and other property seized from a
Boston College computer science student's dorm room after finding
there was no probable cause to search the room in the first place. The
police were investigating whether the student sent hoax emails about
another student.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Boston law firm Fish and
Richardson are representing the computer science student, who was
forced to complete much of the final month of the semester without his
computer and phone. Boston College also shut off the student's network
access in the wake of the now-rejected search.

"The judge correctly found that there was no legitimate reason to
search and seize this student's property," said EFF Civil Liberties
Director Jennifer Granick. "Our client was targeted because law
enforcement was improperly suspicious of our client's computer skills
and misunderstood computer crime laws. We're grateful that the court
was able to see through the commonwealth's smokescreen and rectify
this mistake."

In her order Thursday, Justice Margot Botsford rejected the
commonwealth's theory that sending a hoax email might be unlawful
under a Massachusetts computer crime statute barring the "unauthorized
access" to a computer, concluding that there could be no violation of
what was only a "hypothetical internet use policy." Thursday's
decision now stands as the highest state court opinion to reject the
dangerous theory that terms of service violations constitute computer
"hacking" crimes. Justice Botsford further found that details offered
by police as corroboration of other alleged offenses were insufficient
and did not establish probable cause for the search.

"No one should be subjected to a search like this based on such flimsy
theories and evidence," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman.
"The Fourth Amendment flatly bars such fishing expeditions. Computer
expertise is not a crime, and it was inappropriate for the
commonwealth to employ such transparent scare tactics in an attempt to
hide the fact that they had no case."

EFF had appealed the case to the Massachusetts Supreme Court with Fish
& Richardson attorneys Adam Kessel, Lawrence Kolodney, and Tom Brown.

For the full order from Judge Botsford:
http://www.eff.org/files/SJCcalixteorder.pdf

For more on this case:
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/05/mass-sjc-tosses-calixte-warrant

Contacts:

Jennifer Stisa Granick
Civil Liberties Director
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jennifer () eff org

Matt Zimmerman
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
mattz () eff org

--
Joseph Lorenzo Hall
ACCURATE Postdoctoral Research Associate
UC Berkeley School of Information
Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy
http://josephhall.org/




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