Read

Error message

Notice: Undefined index: base_url in include_once() (line 125 of /home3/occupyco/public_html/dev/sites/default/settings.php).

User menu

Search form

The Latest Victims of Justice Department Overreach

The Latest Victims of Justice Department Overreach
Tue, 3/19/2013 - by Demand Progress

This has to stop.

In case after case, the Department of Justice continues to abuse the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Yesterday, Andrew ‘weev’ Auernheimer was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for revealing to the media that AT&T had configured its servers to allow access to iPad owners’ unsecured email addresses.

And last Thursday, the CFAA was used to indict Matthew Keys, the 26-year-old deputy social media editor at Reuters, for providing a username and password so that Anonymous could execute a harmless and victimless prank—momentarily changing an Los Angeles Times headline.

Now Keys faces up to 15 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

Weev identified a flaw and harmed no one. Matthew Keys was party to a harmless prank. Both face years in prison under the CFAA. Click here to call on congress to reform this ridiculous law.

The key problem with the CFAA is that it allows prosecutors to treat violations of ‘terms-of-use’ agreements—all that fine print you ‘agree to’ but hardly ever read when you sign up for a website or log on to a computer—as felonies.

That means that if you lie about your height or weight on a dating profile, or check ESPN or Gchat at work, you could be convicted of a felony under the CFAA. As the New Yorker’s Tim Wu put it, the DOJ’s interpretation of the CFAA makes “the American desk-worker a felon.”

We absolutely must reform the CFAA before the DOJ puts more people away for harmless, victimless crimes.

It is precisely the DOJ’s overbroad interpretation of the CFAA that allowed federal prosecutors to charge net freedom activist and Demand Progress cofounder Aaron Swartz with twelve felonies—amounting to a maximum penalty of 35 years in prison and $1 million in fines—for downloading too many academic articles too fast from an MIT computer.

And as you’ve probably heard, Aaron’s loved ones believe that it was the weight of this abusive and absurdly punitive prosecution which contributed to Aaron’s decision to take his own life in January.

The CFAA reforms are being called “Aaron’s Law” in honor of our friend. Tell your lawmaker to support Aaron’s Law today.

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

prison reform, incarceration rates, private prisons, for-profit prisons, white supremacy, enslavement, climate justice, racial justice, Green New Deal

The year 2020 has caused many white people to realize we live in a racist system. The Green New Deal is about systemic change for all, and deconstructing racism must be front and central in this agenda.

coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, COVID-19 deaths, downplaying coronavirus

By infecting three of the world’s most right-wing leaders, the coronavirus underscored not only the incompetence and irresponsibility of their governments – but the truth that their brand of populism doesn't keep people safe.

COVID-19, corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, corporate destruction

Corporations are not "too big to fail" and, when they commit crimes, they are not "too big to jail." As David Whyte writes in his new book, "Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us," the moment is now to rein in out-of-control corporate power.

The world has lost an incredible thinker and doer. I have lost an amazing friend. A void exists where before it was filled with David's optimism, humour and joy.

Kevin Zeese speaks at a rally for Chelsea Manning. By Ellen Davidson.

Kevin fought to bring truth every day. We must not lose this struggle.

prison reform, incarceration rates, private prisons, for-profit prisons, white supremacy, enslavement, climate justice, racial justice, Green New Deal

The year 2020 has caused many white people to realize we live in a racist system. The Green New Deal is about systemic change for all, and deconstructing racism must be front and central in this agenda.

coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, COVID-19 deaths, downplaying coronavirus

By infecting three of the world’s most right-wing leaders, the coronavirus underscored not only the incompetence and irresponsibility of their governments – but the truth that their brand of populism doesn't keep people safe.

COVID-19, corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, corporate destruction

Corporations are not "too big to fail" and, when they commit crimes, they are not "too big to jail." As David Whyte writes in his new book, "Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us," the moment is now to rein in out-of-control corporate power.

The world has lost an incredible thinker and doer. I have lost an amazing friend. A void exists where before it was filled with David's optimism, humour and joy.

Kevin Zeese speaks at a rally for Chelsea Manning. By Ellen Davidson.

Kevin fought to bring truth every day. We must not lose this struggle.