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Full-Text Articles in Law
Authority And Authors And Codes, Michael J. Madison
Authority And Authors And Codes, Michael J. Madison
Articles
Contests over the meaning and application of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) expose long-standing, complex questions about the sources and impacts of the concept of authority in law and culture. Accessing a computer network “without authorization” and by “exceeding authorized access” is forbidden by the CFAA. Courts are divided in their interpretation of this language in the statute. This Article first proposes to address the issue with an insight from social science research. Neither criminal nor civil liability under the CFAA should attach unless the alleged violator has transgressed some border or boundary that is rendered visible …
Agency, Code, Or Contract: Determining Employees' Authorization Under The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, Katherine Mesenbring Field
Agency, Code, Or Contract: Determining Employees' Authorization Under The Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, Katherine Mesenbring Field
Michigan Law Review
The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA ") provides for civil remedies against individuals who have accessed a protected computer without authorization or in excess of their authorization. With increasing numbers of employees using computers at work, employers have turned to the CFAA in situations where disloyal employees have pilfered company information from the employer's computer system. The vague language of the CFAA, however, has led courts to develop three different interpretations of "authorization" in these CFAA employment cases, with the result that factually similar cases in different courts can generate opposite outcomes in terms of employee liability under …