Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)

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Aaron Swartz And How A Martyr Makes A Law

Brian Resnick | Nextgov | February 6, 2013

Congress enacted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act in 1984, before there was a World Wide Web. And yet, it took Internet wunderkind Aaron Swartz’s apparent suicide for efforts to reform it to get traction. Sometimes to make a law, it takes a martyr...Now, in death, his accomplishments, coupled with his connections in Washington, are galvanizing to establish a law—“Aaron’s Law”— that would exonerate him. Read More »

Aaron Swartz's Work, Computer Crime Law, And "The Internet's Own Boy"

April Glaser | Electronic Frontier Foundation | August 27, 2014

It’s been more than a year since Aaron Swartz’s tragic death, and now Aaron’s life is the subject of a new documentary, The Internet’s Own Boy, directed by Brian Knappenberger. The documentary has received much acclaim and deservedly so...

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Aaron Swartz’s Suicide Triggers Response From Top U.S. Lawmakers

Sam Gustin | Time | January 16, 2013

Aaron Swartz, the brilliant and mercurial young programmer who killed himself in Brooklyn last Friday, was memorialized in his hometown of Highland Park, Ill., Tuesday, as the shockwaves from his death reached Washington, D.C. Read More »

Aaron's Law Finally Introduced: Reform The CFAA

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | June 20, 2013

Today, Zoe Lofgren and Jim Sensenbrenner in the House and Ron Wyden in the Senate introduced "Aaron's Law," an attempt to reform the widely abused CFAA, so that it no longer sweeps up innocent activity. Read More »

Academics Agree MIT Should Have Done More For Aaron Swartz

Robinson Meyer | The Atlantic | August 7, 2013

In late July, MIT issued its report, written by computer science professor Hal Abelson, on the university's own actions in the Aaron Swartz case. Swartz, an information activist, faced extensive charges for downloading a huge number of academic articles from the online service JSTOR over MIT's network. Swartz committed suicide in January. Read More »

Appeals Court Overturns Conviction Of AT&T Hacker 'Weev'

Carrie Mihalcik | CNET | April 11, 2014

A federal appeals court rules that Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer was tried in the wrong state and overturns his conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

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Brian Knappenberger On Capturing The Life And Death Of Aaron Swartz In The Internet’s Own Boy

Jon Dekel | National Post | April 24, 2014

In 1986, the U.S. Congress, spooked by the fictional film War Games — in which a hacker unwittingly almost kicks off the Third World War by breaking into NORAD’s supercomputer — enacted the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Nearly three decades later, that same anachronistic law became the basis of the overzealous prosecution and ultimate suicide of one of the online world’s most prodigious sons.

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Carmen Ortiz And Stephen Heymann: Accountability For Prosecutorial Abuse

Glenn Greenwald | The Guardian | January 16, 2013

Imposing real consequences on these federal prosecutors in the Aaron Swartz case is vital for both justice and reform Read More »

Death Of A Hacktivist

Patricia Aufderheide | In These Times | May 19, 2014

Aaron Swartz was an Internet prodigy and a trouble-maker. The new documentary The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz is not only about Swartz, but about why we should care about the issues he cared about, and the trouble that triggered his suicide...

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Farewell To Aaron Swartz, An Extraordinary Hacker And Activist

Peter Eckersley | Electronic Frontier Foundation | January 12, 2013

Yesterday Aaron Swartz, a close friend and collaborator of ours, committed suicide. This is a tragic end to a brief and extraordinary life. Aaron did more than almost anyone to make the Internet a thriving ecosystem for open knowledge, and to keep it that way. His contributions were numerous, and some of them were indispensable. Read More »

Feds Go Overboard In Prosecuting Information Activist

Timothy B. Lee | Ars Technica | September 20, 2012

Violate website terms of use and you too could be a felon. Read More »

Hacker Weev Free After Appeal

Thomas Claburn | Information Week | April 11, 2014

Andrew Auernheimer, better known on the Internet as "weev," has had his sentence overturned by a federal appeals court, righting what many advocacy groups regarded as an unfair conviction.  In 2010, Auernheimer and co-defendant Daniel Spitler found a way to access the email addresses of AT&T iPad owners through AT&T's website.

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Holder's Disappointing Tech Legacy

Tim Wu | The New Yorker | September 26, 2014

As he leaves office, Attorney General Eric Holder is being celebrated for many accomplishments, particularly in areas like civil rights and racial justice, which he saw as his legacy...But, when it came to another frontier of civil rights—the digital world, in which most of us now spend much of our time—Holder fell far short...

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How Aaron Swartz Helped Inspire The Super PAC To End All Super PACs

Sam Gustin | Motherboard | June 30, 2014

Several years ago, the late internet activist Aaron Swartz had a conversation with one of his mentors, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, that would change Lessig’s future...Swartz challenged Lessig to reevaluate his life's mission...

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How Aaron Swartz's Cause Wins In The End

Eric Posner | Slate | January 22, 2013

[... The] facts no longer matter: By becoming a martyr to open access, Swartz has, for better or worse, dealt a blow to government efforts to delegitimize hackers and their values. Read More »