Have you ever violated the Terms of Service on a web site? For that matter, have you ever read the Terms of Service for any of the websites you use on a daily basis? Here’s the links to a few of my favorites:
If you’ve ever broken the TOS on any of these sites, you are now a criminal under the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act according to precedent set by this ruling (Groklaw).
And what is this ruling you ask? Why, it’s the ruling agains Lori Drew, the woman who cyberbullied 13-year-old Megan Meier on MySpace.
Did Lori Drew do something awful? Yes. Is she a bad person? Sure looks like it. But this law was never intended to be enforced in this way. Surely Terms of Service and End User License Agreement’s cannot be enforced by the Government – they are Civil Suit fodder only, right? Well, not anymore.
Now {Internet Company}’s lawyers can write laws. The Federal Government is responsible for enforcing them. This is not good, friends. Not good at all.