Congress Decides To Not Make Online Mistruths A Felony Crime

By Cornelius Nunev





George Washington University teacher Orin Kerr elevated blood pressures around the country on Sept. 14. The Op-Ed he wrote for the Wall Street Journal, published that day, specified the horrors of the so-called "Facebook Felony" regulation. The felony provision has been amended out of the bill. However, Congress is still considering a cyber-security bill.



What is a Facebook Felony



Teacher Kerr explained that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act were written in 1986. It would have made it a felony to lie online. Taken to its logical end, this law would have made it a felony crime to violate terms of service on any site. It could possibly be a felony to make an account with a phony name, fake age or even fake weight with the law. The change to the regulation is meant, however, to target hackers that challenge the security of important computer networks.



Protection added



The update to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is considered an amendment by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee after suggestions for people such as Kerr. There is an actual amendment. It exempts "access in violation of a contractual obligation or agreement, such as an acceptable use policy or terms of service agreement, with an Internet service provider, Internet site, or non-government employer, if such violation constitutes the sole basis for determining that access to a guarded computer is unauthorized." During the amendment discussion, there were many examples brought up by Al Franken and Chuck Grassley. These amendments were things that should not be a felony even if they are not the most ethical choices. It should not be a felony to create anonymous accounts on sites such as FourSquare to add optimistic business reviews of your business. It is definitely unethical though. There were times when cyber securities statues were used. These were used in extreme cases to get bullies prosecuted.



What to watch out for



Congress could choose to do nothing with cyber security. Still, increasingly more people are concerned about online identity and security. The Justice Department prosecutes a female in 2009 for making a MySpace profile that was not real. Last year, a computerized program that bought tickets on TicketMaster led to criminal charges for an individual. There are unauthorized access laws out there too. They could be put in civil cases also. You've to always follow the terms of the website you are on. When lying about age and other things on dating online websites, you most likely will not get prosecuted. Still, you need to always know the rules of what you are getting into.









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