Sunday, January 30, 2022

More Republican Pedophiles

 * Republican mayor Thomas Adams of Illinois charged with 11 counts of disseminating child pornography and two counts of possession of child pornography.

* Republican campaign worker and self proclaimed reverend Steve Aiken convicted of having sex with two underage girls.

* Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

Republican activist and rising Colorado Republican star Randal David Ankeney, who named his dogs Nixon aned Reagan, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child. Later he was rearrested for 5 counts of sexual assault on a child, 3 counts of sexual enticement of a child, and one count of sexual exploitation of a child.

* Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.

* Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

* Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

* Republican preacher Hewart Lee Bennett arrested for soliciting sex from 16 year old boys while claiming that he did so to gain their trust and then teach them the love of Jesus.

* Republican Christian Coalition chair Louis Beres investigated for molesting three female family members as teens.

* Clifton Bennett, 18, son of Arizona republican state senator Ken Bennett plead guilty to assaulting 3 boys, aged 11-15 with broomsticks up their rectal areas.

* Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

* Republican golden boy and GOP employee Theodore Bundy executed for murdering over two dozen women.

* Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

* Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15-year old girl.

* Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.

* Republican judge and Nixon Supreme Court nominee Harrold Carswell charged with making a pass at an undercover male cop in a public bathroom.

* Republican Randall Casseday, human resource chair of the Washington Times, arrested for soliciting sex from a 13 year old.

* Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.

* Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

* Republican councilman John Collins pleads guilty to sexually molesting a 13 + 14 year old girls.

* Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer, who appeared in an ad blasting Al gore, convicted of molesting 9 yr old girl stepdaughter

* Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

* Republican Committeeman John Curtain charged with molesting a teenage boy.

* Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A.Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a 15-year old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.

* Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos

* Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-yr-old girl.

* Republican activist and Focus on the Family Founder Pat Dobson advocates that fathers should show their penises to their sons while in the shower with them.

* Republican spokesman Brian Doyle arrested for trying to seduce a 14 year old girl over the Internet.

* Republican director of the Young Republican Federation Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

* Republican congressman Mark Foley resigned from Congress after sending sexually explicit emails to former male pages under the age of 18.

* Republican constable Larry Dale Floyd of Denton arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex from an 8 yr old girl.

* Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.

* Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.

* Republican Mayor Philip Giordano of Waterbury Connecticut is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls

* Republican Mayor John Gosek sentenced to jail for soliciting sex from two 15 year old girls.

* Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

* Republican President of NYC Housing Development Russell Harding pleads guilty to possession of child pornography on his computer.

* Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a “good military man” and “church goer” was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

* Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

* Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.

* Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

* Republican anti-gay activist Earl “Butch” Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

* Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

* Republican judge Ronald Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation.

* Republican Congressman Donald “Buz” Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail

* Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

* Republican Douglas County election official Pat McPherson arrested for fondling a 17 yr old girl.

* Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor..

* Republican state rep Brent Parker arrested for soliciting sex from undercover officer posing as male prostitute.

* Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

* Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

* Republican boy scout leader and zoning supervisor Dennis L Rader pleaded guilty for performing a sexual act on an 11 year old girl he murdered.

* Republican petition leader Tom Randall pleads guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14.

* Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter Susan Smith.

* Republican senator Rick Man on Dog Santorum and his wife forced their three children, all under the age of six, to play with a dead fetus in the crib of their home.

* Republican ex congressman Peter Schmitt of Orange County, California’s Republican daughter Mary Kay Lotorneau convicted of raping a 6th grader and bearing his two children.

* Republican congressman Ed Shrock resigned from Congress after found seeking sex on hotlines for homosexuals.

* Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

* Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

* Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

* Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

Republican party leader Bobby Stumbo arrested for having sex with a five year old boy.

* Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

* Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano arrested for sexually molesting a 14 yr old girl.

* Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond raped a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

* Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.

* Spokane Republican homophobic mayor Jim West recalled after evidence surfaced that he molested little boys.

* Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

* Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

Republican Pedophiles

 

  • Republican aide, Alan David Berlin, was arrested on charges that he wanted to engage in sex acts with a 15 year old boy while dressed in a panda costume.

  • Fox News producer Aaron Bruns pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years for possessing child pornography.

  • Republican activist and former presidential campaign chairman Jeffrey Claude Bartleson was arrested on charges of sexually molesting a 5-year old boy.

  • Republican activist and former chairman of the Christian County Republicans Royce Fessenden pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree child molestation and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy.

  • Republican parole board officer and former legislator George Christian (Chris) Ortloff pleaded guilty to attempting to lure 11- and 12-year-old girls to have sex with him.


  • Republican legislator Robert A. McKee pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

  • Republican chief of staff Eric Feltner pleaded guilty to showing pornography to a 13-year old girl.

  • Republican presidential campaign official Matthew Joseph Elliott was convicted of sexual exploitation of a child.

  • Republican city councilman John Bryan killed himself after police began investigating allegations that he had molested three girls, including two of his adopted daughters, ages 12 and 15.


  • Republican legislator Ted Klaudt was charged with raping girls under the age of 16.





  • Republican congressional aide Jeffrey Nielsen was arrested for having sex with a 14-year old boy.

  • Republican County Commissioner Patrick Lee McGuire surrendered to police after allegedly molesting girls between the ages of 8 and 13.
  • Republican prosecutor Larry Corrigan was arrested for soliciting sex from 13-year old girls.
  • Republican Mayor Jeffrey Kyle Randall was sentenced to 275 days in jail for molesting two boys -- ages ten and 12 -- during a six-year period.
  • Republican County Board Candidate Brent Schepp was charged with molesting a 14-year old girl and killed himself three days later.
  • Republican Congressman Mark Foley abruptly resigned from Congress after "sexually explicit" emails surfaced showing him flirting with a 16-year old boy.
  • Republican executive Randall Casseday of the conservative Washington Times newspaper pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a 13-year old girl on the internet.
  • Republican chairman of the Oregon Christian Coalition Lou Beres confessed to molesting a 13-year old girl.
  • Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting sex from an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
  • Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
  • Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
  • Republican petition drive manager Tom Randall pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 14, one of them the daughter of an associate in the petition business.
  • Republican County Chairman Armando Tebano pleaded guilty to fondling a 14-year-old girl.
  • Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.
  • Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
  • Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
  • Republican Mayor Tom Adams was arrested for distributing child pornography over the internet.
  • Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.
  • Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
  • Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
  • Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
  • Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.
  • Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
  • Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
  • Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.
  • Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
  • Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was sentenced to six years in prison for molesting two 8-year old girls, one of whom appeared in an anti-Gore television commercial.
  • Republican fundraiser Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
  • Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
  • Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.
  • Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.
  • Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
  • Republican Judge Ronald C. Kline pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer.
  • Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
  • Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
  • Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
  • Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
  • Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
  • Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
  • Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.
  • Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.
  • Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
  • Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
  • Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
  • Republican legislator Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).
  • Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.
  • Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.
  • Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
  • Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
  • Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.
  • Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.
  • Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
  • Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.
  • Republican campaign worker, police officer and self-proclaimed reverend Steve Aiken was convicted of having sex with two underage girls.
  • Republican director of the "Young Republican Federation" Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
  • Republican president of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Russell Harding pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer.
  • Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was found guilty of raping a 15-year old girl. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.
  • Republican Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency. See excerpt of one prisoner's report here and his full report here.

Will Traitorous Liars On Social Media Be Prosecuted



by Jeffrey N. Rosenthal
Blank Rome LLP






Did you really go to Harvard? Were you actually born in 1982? Did you truly spend that summer backpacking through Europe? Your online profile certainly says so. But if such statements are, shall we say, somewhat less-thantruthful, did you just commit a federal computer crime? In other words, could lying on Facebook really land you in jail?
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH

Relax. It is highly, highly unlikely that a decision to fudge your age or weight or use a fake name on Facebook is going to result in any extended jail time. But just in case you were planning on making a habit of it, know that there was once a time when the federal government actually argued such conduct could theoretically be deemed criminal.

Few people realize that claiming to be another person, creating multiple accounts, letting someone else log into your account or falsely representing an organization violates Facebook's terms of service. Or that by using online dating sites like Match.com, you not only agree to "not provide inaccurate, misleading or false information to the company or to any other member," but must also update any information that "subsequently becomes inaccurate, misleading or false."

More importantly, by violating such terms of use, your access to these sites is technically unauthorized. So the bigger question becomes: Is it a crime to violate a website's terms of service? If so, millions of people could potentially be at risk for uploading false data to social media or online dating sites. And what about your company's computer-use policies? Could using ESPN.com at work to check a score get you in hot water with the Department of Justice?

THE TRUTH IS (NOT NECESSARILY) OUT THERE

Think people only upload truthful information about themselves on social media sites? Why not ask Darth Vader, who apparently settled in Allentown, Pa., after his storied adventures during the Star Wars saga. At least that is what his Facebook page says.

In fact, according to a June study of 2,000 households by Consumer Reports, 25 percent of Facebook users admitted to falsifying information on the site — be it their name, birth date or location. This was double the number of users from two years ago.

So what happens if you throw caution to the wind and continue to post such "creative" information? Have you done something illegal? The answer may surprise you.

COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT OF 1986

In 1984, Congress initiated a campaign against computer crime by passing the Counterfeit Access Device and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Shortly thereafter, it expanded the act with a revised version: the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Originally intended to help crack down on computer hacking, the CFAA also assists the federal government in prosecuting computer fraud cases.

Passed in 1986 and amended several times — most notably as part of the USA Patriot Act in 2001 — the reach of the CFAA has expanded over the years.

Despite it being primarily a criminal statute, a civil provision was added to the CFAA in 1994 to provide a private cause of action if a violation causes loss or damage, as defined therein. In 2008, the CFAA was further amended by the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act — which eliminated the threshold need for a plaintiff's loss to be greater than $5,000 and made it a felony for a user to cause damage to 10 or more computers.

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Internet Law Treatise (ilt.eff.org), a CFAA violation can be committed in two ways: either by an outsider who trespasses into a computer, or by an intruder who goes beyond the scope of his or her given authorization.

Congress did not define the phrase "without authorization" — perhaps assuming the words speak for themselves. But the term "exceeds authorized access" is defined by Section 1030(e)(6) to mean "to access a computer with authorization and to use such access to obtain or alter information in the computer that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain or alter." Courts have recognized the distinction between these terms is "arguably minute."
OUT OF PLACE ON MYSPACE

The most notable use of the CFAA to target those accused of exceeding their authorized access to social media sites occurred in the lamentable case of United States v. Drew, 259 F.R.D. 449 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 28, 2009)— referred to by The New York Times as the country's "first cyberbullying verdict."

In Drew, defendant Lori Drew was charged with violating the CFAA by using a fictitious name and age on a Myspace account to make hurtful comments to a teenage girl in the fall of 2006. Tragically, the girl later took her own life. Following a wave of public outcry, federal prosecutors claimed Drew broke federal law by violating Myspace's terms of service — and that her communications were responsible for the teen's death. Drew was subsequently convicted of a misdemeanor under the CFAA in November 2008.

But in 2009, a California federal judge threw out the conviction after the court determined the CFAA was inapplicable to the allegation that Drew violated Myspace's terms of service, as it would effectively "criminalize ... a breach of contract." There was no appeal.

COMPUTER-USE POLICIES AND THE CFAA

Two schools of thought exist with respect to violations of corporate policies and the CFAA.

The first, promulgated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in International Airport Centers v. Citrin, 440 F.3d 418 (7th Cir. 2006), holds that when an employee accesses a computer or information on a computer to further interests that are adverse to his or her employer, he or she violates his or her duty of loyalty — thereby terminating his or her agency relationship and losing any authority he or she has to access the computer or any information on it. Thus, the Seventh Circuit held an employee who erased crucial data on his company laptop prior to turning it in at the end of his employment violated the CFAA. It reasoned his "breach of his duty of loyalty terminated his agency relationship ... and with it his authority to access the laptop, because the only basis of his authority had been that relationship." The Fifth and Eleventh circuits follow this approach.

The second school of thought, articulated by the Ninth Circuit in United States v. Nosal, 676 F.3d 854 (9th Cir. 2012), interprets the terms "without authorization" and "exceeds authorized access" literally and narrowly, limiting their application to situations where an individual accesses a computer (or information on a computer) without permission.

In Nosal, the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, held the defendant's co-conspirators, a group of employees at an executive search firm, did not violate the CFAA when they retrieved confidential information via their company user accounts and transferred it to the defendant, a competitor and former employee. It reasoned the CFAA fails to provide a remedy for the violation of a use policy where authorization has not been rescinded.

Notably, as part of the Nosal decision, authored by Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, the court "respectfully declined to follow our sister circuits," and "urge[d] them to reconsider instead."

At least one other circuit has heeded Kozinski's advice — this time in the context of a civil CFAA claim. Despite disagreeing with the Ninth Circuit's exact interpretation of "exceeds authorized access" — in that it could, theoretically, impute liability to employees with no intent to defraud — the Fourth Circuit in WEC Carolina Energy Solutions v. Miller, 687 F.3d 199 (4th Cir. 2012), nevertheless rejected the Seventh Circuit's automatic "cessation-ofagency" theory. In so ruling, WEC Carolina sided with Nosal to find a former employee who, prior to his resignation, downloaded proprietary information at his new employer's direction and then used it to make a presentation to a potential customer did not violate the CFAA.

The Fourth Circuit also noted that "other legal remedies" existed to dissuade such disloyal conduct. In so doing, the court endeavored to rein in efforts to utilize the expansive damages available under the CFAA — which can include response costs, damage assessments, restoration of data or programs, wages of employees for these tasks, lost sales, lost advertising revenue and even harm to reputation or good will.
IMPLICATIONS

Is goofing off at work actionable? Should your Facebook page be subject to a lie-detector test? As shown above, questions such as these are currently working their way through both the judicial and legislative branches.

Conceivably, the recent momentum from the Ninth and Fourth circuits will continue to limit the reach of the CFAA as it applies to nonfraudulent, everyday uses of workplace computers and websites.

There is also a block of individuals and organizations — led by Senator Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and former Justice Department computer crime prosecutor Orin S. Kerr — who intend to correct what they see as a draconian interpretation of the CFAA.

For instance, in August, Leahy proposed an amendment to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (S 3413) to, in effect, adopt the Ninth Circuit's narrow interpretation. That bill, however, failed to obtain the votes required to move it forward. And with Congress on recess (and its focus likely turning toward the upcoming November elections) commentators believe any such legislation is not expected to be voted on until next year.

Additional protection from prosecution may come from the government itself. During his testimony before Congress in November 2011, Richard Downing, deputy chief of the Department of Justice Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, testified that "the DOJ is in no way interested in bringing cases against the people who lie about their age on a dating site or anything of the sort. We don't have time or resources to do that."

Yet this reasoning was insufficient for Kozinski. Indeed, according to the Nosal court, "the government assures us that, whatever the scope of the CFAA, it won't prosecute minor violations. But we shouldn't have to live at the mercy of our local prosecutor."

There is also the separate issue of whether a person even has notice of a particular website's terms of use (which can, and do, change from time to time). Thus, "behavior that wasn't criminal yesterday can become criminal today without an act of Congress, and without any notice whatsoever," according to Kozinski. And as noted commentator Paul Rosenzweig has further observed, under the existing law, "private corporations can in effect establish what conduct violates federal criminal law when they draft such policies."

Commentators have also discussed how the CFAA cases have long been likely candidates for Supreme Court review — given the apparent circuit split. And although the Department of Justice sought an extension to file a cert petition in Nosal one day after WEC Carolina was decided, it ultimately chose not to proceed in August without explanation.

Amazingly, if the strictest letter of the CFAA were to be applied today, one-quarter of Facebook's domestic users (about 29 million people) could, in theory, be transformed into fugitives for having something false on their pages. The remainder could be picked up for checking social media sites at work in violation of their company's computeruse policy.

Obviously that is not going to happen.

So, while there is certainly no need to go out and scrub the content on your online dating or social media profile, it is at least worth thinking about the type of information you post online until this issue is ultimately resolved by the legislature.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Why Twitter Protects Liars

 

The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News

Falsehoods almost always beat out the truth on Twitter, penetrating further, faster, and deeper into the social network than accurate information.

Democracies Worldwide Should Execute Trump Trolls and Putin Trolls

 Trump trolls and Putin trolls are committing espionage and therefore they can be treated as spies and executed under the law. When the spre...