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[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Sen. Torricelli's "anti-hacker" bill puts parents, kids in jail
- To: debate@lists.fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] (Fwd) FC: Sen. Torricelli's "anti-hacker" bill puts parents, kids in jail
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 18:16:10 +0200
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Sat, 4 Aug 2001 11:20:15 -0400
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: politech@politechbot.com
Subject: FC: Sen. Torricelli's "anti-hacker" bill puts parents, kids in jail
Send reply to: declan@well.com
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45752,00.html
Senator Targets School Hackers
By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
6:48 a.m. Aug. 1, 2001 PDT
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Robert Torricelli claims he wants to put hackers
who disrupt school computers in prison.
"Computer hackers who prey upon unsuspecting schools, striking fear
in the hearts of entire communities with threats of violence,
cannot go unpunished," the New Jersey Democrat said this week.
But educators, programmers and civil libertarians say Torricelli's
recently-introduced School Website Protection Act of 2001 does more
than place wrongdoers behind bars. They say the bill is worded so
vaguely it would turn commonplace activities into federal crimes to
be investigated by the U.S. Secret Service.
"I think the bill misses the mark," says Jim Dempsey, deputy
director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. "It is written
in an overly broad fashion. Sending one unsolicited e-mail affects
a computer. If I send an e-mail to my student's teacher and I
didn't have her permission, I violate the act."
Dempsey is talking about the bill's sweeping language, which
punishes activities that affect a computer rather than ones that
damage it or successfully penetrate its security. Contrary to what
the name of the bill implies, the measure covers any school
computer system, not just websites, and could criminalize pranks
such as sending mail from a friend's computer when they've left
themselves logged in.
Torricelli's measure says anyone who "knowingly causes the
transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a
result of such conduct, intentionally affects or impairs without
authorization a computer of an elementary school or secondary
school or institution of higher education" will to go federal
prison for up to 10 years.
[...]
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