Aaron Swartz hit with 9 more felony charges in MIT hacking case

Re:Aaron Swartz hit with 9 more felony charges in MIT hackin... by Karunamon on Wednesday September 19, 2012 @05:10PM (#4545603)

I understand that much - holding onto underage porn is a strict liability crime for example

What I'm getting at here is that, the "harm" thing is not a good bar. The only difference between breaking a ToS in this condition and breaking a strict liability law is that it's a corporation instead of a prosecutor initiating the case.

*ed

Dropped "unwittingly", since you have to have been proven to know you're breaking the ToS.. still a broken law..

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Re:Aaron Swartz hit with 9 more felony charges in MIT hackin... by tptacek on Wednesday September 19, 2012 @05:16PM (#4545631)

I don't understand what this comment is trying to say. The words following "the only difference" are not in fact the only difference between breaking a term of service and committing a crime under strict liability. In fact, the opposite is more true. You do not, for instance, simply need to know you're violating a term of service; you have to be doing so in bad faith, with intent to defraud.

I think you need to read the CFAA --- carefully, because clauses that occur early in the statute are refined and clarified later in the statute --- before wading into technical discussions about it.

It's not a particularly difficult law to understand.

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