[Gerard is an attorney at Wiley Rein & Fielding, who points out even MORE ways I can be liable. Thanks a lot! :) In my column (http://news.com.com/2010-1028-978636.html) Lee Tien points out still another. To answer the folks who said government documents are not password protected and therefore the DMCA does not apply, generally that would be correct. But in this case other MS Word documents that were not password protected on the same web page were prepared by Deloitte Consulting, as I noted in the column. If these documents were also prepared by a contractor, presumably they would be copyrighted and the DMCA would apply. --Declan] --- Subject: RE: Will this column land me in federal prison under the DMCA? Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 14:20:19 -0500 From: "Stegmaier, Gerard" <gstegmaiat_private> To: <declanat_private> Declan, I seldom post but very much enjoy politech. Your latest rant caught my attention for several reasons. There are a host of other statutes and laws that using a surreptitiously acquired password could cause one to run afoul of. Forgetting for the moment that FOIA or some other law might enable you to lawfully access the documents, and that they are in effect within the public domain (e.g. it would be difficult to violate whatever copyright the government possesses), just a few of the provisions and/or laws to be wary of include: 1) Computer Fraud and Abuse Act; 2) Various state computer crime codes relating to unauthorized access and computer trespass; 3) Trespass to chattels; 4) Misappropriation; 5) Unfair competition; 6) Fraud (after all one probably would have to misrepresent who one is to use the password)and a parade of other similar horribles. Nevertheless, passwords and related authentication still have some simple elegance for erstwhile libertarians and free marketeers - by putting up what Maureen O'Rourke has referred to as "digital fences" content providers can choose with whom and how they do business AND at the same time content users can choose not to do business on those terms and conditions. Just a thought. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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