Senate Committee Recognizes That Violating Terms of Service Shouldn't Be A Crime
from the now-let's-get-this-through dept
As we recently noted in our coverage of the various attempts to amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), with some plans to make it worse, there was one bright spot: Senators Grassley and Franken had introduced an amendment that would make it clear that merely violating a website's terms of service did not constitute exceeding authorized access, as some law enforcement (and courts) had interpreted the law to read. Thankfully, this amendment was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. That's no guarantee that it will become a part of the law -- and there's no guarantee that other changes might not make the CFAA even worse, but it's at least a step in the right direction. It's good to finally see Congress at least push back on the expansive interpretation of the CFAA that law enforcement has been using for too long.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: al franken, cfaa, chuck grassley, terms of service
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
TOS are unenforceable.
This is ridiculous and should not have any kind of force of law. Simply viewing something does not imply agreement. I could just as well create a website that states by reading this notice you agree to send me all your worldly possessions.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: TOS are unenforceable.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Damnation
I was in the process of discussions with the Evil League of Evil of changing by nefarious means, *evil laugh* Ma Ha HA, every USA website's TOS so that all US Citizens would be felons if they ever used the internet ever again.
Drats. Foiled again.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]