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Full-Text Articles in Law
Consenting To Computer Use, James Grimmelmann
Consenting To Computer Use, James Grimmelmann
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) makes it a crime to “access a computer without authorization or exceed authorized access.” Courts and commentators have struggled to explain what types of conduct by a computer user are “without authorization.” But this approach is backwards; authorization is not so much a question of what a computer user does, as it is a question of what a computer owner allows.
In other words, authorization under the CFAA is an issue of consent, not conduct; to understand authorization, we need to understand consent. Building on Peter Westen’s taxonomy of consent, I argue …
A Code-Based Approach To Unauthorized Access Under The Computer Fraud Abuse Act, Patricia L. Bellia
A Code-Based Approach To Unauthorized Access Under The Computer Fraud Abuse Act, Patricia L. Bellia
Journal Articles
Thirty years ago, Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to combat the emerging problem of computer crime. The statute’s core prohibitions targeted one who “accesses” a computer “without authorization” or who “exceeds authorized access.” Over time, incremental statutory changes and large-scale technical changes have dramatically expanded the potential scope of the CFAA. The question of what constitutes unauthorized access has taken on far greater significance than it had thirty years ago, and courts remain deeply divided on this question. This Article explores the text, purpose, and history of the CFAA, as well as a range of normative …