> The reason people don't tell you their database password on Hacker News is because of countries that don't have that law, I assume.
That's silly, the reason people protect themselves is so that they are protected. Legal protection is another different kind of protection, but I think it's a deep stretch to argue that one can remove all the technical protections and still keep access to the CFAA and obtain meaningful protection from the law.
> protected computer
If you're suggesting that the CFAA itself protects the computer by definition, then you've excluded the possibility of a such thing as an "unprotected computer" which renders the extra word unnecessary. I don't think that's the intention, that all computers gain the implicit protection, I think there actually needs to be a policy or standard enforced, or ownership made clear.
In the tradition of US property law, I think you need to do the bare minimum of posting "NO TRESPASSING" signs at the border so anyone that walks by them can be said to have observed the difference between your space and the public spaces surrounding it (which they are permitted to be in, just like your private property so long as it's unprotected and they haven't been asked to leave before...)
