Van Buren is a victory against overbroad interpretations of the CFAA

Re:Van Buren is a victory against overbroad interpretations ... by foota on Friday June 04, 2021 @05:16PM (#27399164)

It seems to me like the issue here is that reasonable people disagree on where the boundary between work misconduct and criminal liability is, and that computers being involved are pushing that to the forefront in these kinds of cases.

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Re:Van Buren is a victory against overbroad interpretations ... by ddlatham on Friday June 04, 2021 @05:27PM (#27399264)

I agree that defining where the boundary should be is tricky in practice, and it's a good point that this was hardly a unanimous decision, not to mention overruling the appealed ruling.

On the other hand, the underlying law, the CFAA, is about more than just workplace issues like this issue. Interpreting it broadly could mean that violating some terms of use could be a criminal offense, and I am glad that the court avoided that interpretation. It's better having this law be more specific to the intent of criminalizing "hacking" and leaving other laws or policies to deal with how one might abuse computers or networks that one is otherwise entitled to access.

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Re:Van Buren is a victory against overbroad interpretations ... by bobthepanda on Friday June 04, 2021 @05:25PM (#27399240)

Also there is no reason that misconduct of this kind couldn’t be prosecuted under laws preventing similar breaches that aren’t digital in nature.

Selling private data for bribes should be illegal whether or not it’s a database or a file cabinet.

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