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0 pointsdkokelley14y ago0 comments

"...sharing your Facebook password is illegal."

Illegal is the wrong word for it. It's not illegal, it's a violation of the Facebook TOS - a matter for at most a civil (and not criminal) court.

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3 comments · 1 top-level

kijin14y ago· 2 in thread

There was a thread here on HN some time ago, where someone argued that it's illegal anyway, because of some misguided law that makes it a federal crime to violate an internet company's TOS. I can't find that thread right now, though.

skymt14y ago

That would be the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act[0,1]. The relevant bit is "Whoever ... intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains ... information from any protected computer ... shall be punished as provided in subsection (c) of this section." A "protected computer", by the way, is any computer "which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication."

That's not relevant, though, because US v. Lori Drew[2] decided that a user can't be prosecuted under the CFAA for breaking a ToS agreement. (BTW, IANAL.)

0: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act

2: https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/IST432TEAM24/United+State...

rhizome14y ago

Which the prosecution used against Lori Drew, and ultimately failed. The hysteria about it being illegal to violate TOS was a feature of the original verdict against her, which was set aside on acquittal. It's a (now) non-story.

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