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[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Sen. Torricelli's "anti-hacker" bill puts parents, kids in jail




------- 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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