Decius:

An Ohio appellate court has upheld the felony hacking conviction of a man who was found guilty of unauthorized access for misusing his computer at work.

This case supports the very very bad idea that it is a crime to do something with a computer that you weren't authorized to do with it. This idea would have people go to prison with felony convictions for reading MemeStreams from work. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This not getting the attention it deserves. This entire legal interpretation is frightening beyond words.

With the Ohio case and the Lori Drew nonsense, legal precedent is being created that says violating a site's Terms of Service is committing a felony.

This is unbelievably scary.

Violating laws is what should be punished. But we have a legal interpretation of a law, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, that says "Doing something a person says you cannot do violates the CFAA." This interpretation has in essence extended law passing power to anyone in the world.

Think about it. Some random dude somewhere in MySpace put in there TOS "You cannot lie in your profile." Lori Drew did lie. Thus Lori Drew violated MySpace's TOS which violates the CFAA and bam! Conviction.

Is Lori Drew a horrible human being? Without a doubt. Do I hope all her and her family's assests get seized in a wrongful death civil suit? Completely. Should she get hit with a felony conviction for violating the CFAA because some dude put a "don't lie" clause in MySpace's TOS? Not at all.

I'm violating a Terms of Service right now. Am I a felon?

Court Upholds Hacking Conviction of Man for Uploading Porn Pics from Work Computer | Threat Level | Wired.com