Friday, August 3, 2012

House Reportedly Looking to Undo Nosal Ruling

by Thomas O'Toole

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Jennifer Granick at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School reports that the House Judiciary Committee is looking at new CFAA language to create criminal liability for terms of service violations -- the sort of liability eliminated in the Ninth Circuit by United States v. Nosal.

According to Granick,

I've heard that the bill is intended to fix what's come to be known as "The Lori Drew Problem": criminalizing terms of service violations. By my analysis, it does the opposite. The text could clear the way for such prosecutions while introducing new legal uncertainties, expanding the scope of the CFAA and greatly increasing penalties, without resolving the underlying problem, which is that the phrase "exceeds authorized access" -- as well as the new phrase "in excess of authorization" in the bill -- are subject to conflicting interpretations.

So far, the bill hasn't yet been introduced.

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