Hello My name is Kel and I am writing you in hopes that you will support
Aaron’s Law a law that is being reintroduced this year in Congress by Senator
Ron Wyden of Oregon in memory of Aaron Swartz.
Aaron’s Law is written to reform the Computer fraud and abuse
act (CFAA) by replacing the phrase "exceeds authorized access" with "access
without authorization," which is defined as obtaining information on a
protected computer that the accesser lacks authorization to obtain by knowingly
circumventing one or more technological or physical measures that are designed
to exclude or prevent unauthorized individuals from obtaining that information.
(1) limit the imposition of enhanced penalties to subsequent offenses under
such Act (currently, additional penalties are allowed if there is a conviction
for another offense) and to criminal acts punishable under federal or state law
by a term of imprisonment for more than one year; and
(2) require the determination of the value of information for enhanced
penalty purposes to be made by reference to fair market value.
The main goals of Aaron’s Law are to change the CFAA so minor breaches of Terms
of service (TOS) are not felonies, to stop the stacking on of charges by
Federal prosecutors that force activists, journalists, researchers and
hacktivists to accept a plea regardless of guilt or innocence, to stop the
ability of prosecutors to charge defendants on both a federal and state level
and to clarify the terms of the CFAA that even judges find difficult to make
sense of.
Well meaning, Good people are being charged as Hackers who are not hackers and
the law in its current state is being skewed and twisted to fit the narrative
of overzealous Prosecutors.
Aaron Swartz made it his life goal to fight for Internet users and their
rights, in the end the Government pushed him farther than he was able to
handle. While facing 35 years in prison, 1M fines and the cost of a two-year
defense against trumped up charges, Aaron Swartz saw no other way out but to
take his own life.
Now it is our turn to take up the fight and fight for the things that were
important to Aaron. To fight for the internet, and help rid the system of this
out dated and draconian law that was acted in the early 80’s because certain
politicians were terrified after watching the movie War Games.
Will you consider helping?
Thank you,
Kel
www.aarons-law.org
[email protected]
@AaronsLaw2017 on twitter--
Liberationtech is public & archives are searchable on Google. Violations of
list guidelines will get you moderated:
https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe,
change to digest, or change password by emailing the moderator at
[email protected].